THE LIFE 



REV. ROWLAND HILL, A.M 



REV. EDWIN SIDNEY, A.M. 



QUITTING, WITH DAILY LABOUR, ALL MY PLEASURE, 
TO GAIN, AT HARVEST, AN ETERNAL TREASURE. 



Herbert. 



THIRD EDITION, 
WITH CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. 



LONDON: BALDWIN & CRADOCK, 
PATERNOSTER-ROW. 

1835. 



3)( 57.0 7 



PRfN-TEU, N£\V BRiDQE-STRKET, LONDON-. 



TO THE 

RIGHT HON. ROWLAND, LORD HILL, 

OF ALMAREZ AND OF HAV/K5T0NE, 

G.C.B., G.C.H., K.T.S., K.M.T., K.S.G., D.C.L., 

COMMANDER OF HIS MAJESTY's FORCES, 
&C., &C.5 &C., 

THIS VOLUME, 

IN THE FULL ASSURANCE HOW GRATIFYING 
SUCH A DEDICATION WOULD HAVE BEEN TO THE VENERABLE 
SUBJECT OF ITS PAGES, 
WITH HIS lordship's KIND PERMISSION 
IS INSCRIBED BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



The last evening I ever spent with Mrs. Rowland 
Hill, she expressed a wish, that, if I survived her 
venerable and beloved husband, I should write an 
authentic narrative of his remarkable life, and I pro- 
mised her that I would, if possible, fulfil her desire. 
Mr. Rowland Hill, acquiescing in this request, be- 
queathed me all his papers, " to he used at my dis- 
cretionr I have now performed my promise, but 
with more haste, on account of the anxiety of his 
friends, than was convenient or advantageous : with 
what discretion I must leave others to determine. 
My readers, however, will doubtless consider the 
unique character I have had to pourtray, and will 
recollect that Mr. Hill's truly solid excellences were 
mingled, even in public, with a vivacity and humour 
peculiar to himself. Had I mentioned only serious 
facts, it might have been justly remarked, that, excel- 
lent as the individual appeared, it was not Rowland 
Hill. Still, I trust, it will be seen in these pages, 
that his true piety. Christian benevolence, and deep 
spirituality, more than atoned for any trifling sin- 
gularities of his nature, or sallies of wit, which were 
mostly accompanied with so much kindness, that, like 

b 



PREFACE. 



a medicine given in sweetmeats, the bitter was seldom 
tasted. 

I have made such selections from the papers of my 
affectionate guardian as I thought most useful and 
interesting ; and if I have erred, I can only plead my 
inexperience as an author : but most truly can I add, 
that it has been my aim not to give the slightest pain 
to the feelings of any human being. Mine has been a 
task of no ordinary delicacy and responsibility ; and 
while I have not concealed my own opinions, I hope 
they have been expressed in a spirit of Christian 
charity towards such as may differ from my views. 

Amon gst the papers left for my use, I found letters 
and manuscripts of the late Sir Richard Hill, together 
with an interesting account of his conversion and early 
experience. I intended, at first, to have extracted 
largely from these documents in the course of this 
volume ; but it was suggested to me, that, by so doing, 
I should too much interrupt the thread of my narra- 
tive, and that they were much more proper for a Life 
of Sir Richard Hill. Many years ago a manuscript, 
containing five sermons on " Charity, or Brotherly 
Love," by Walker, of Truro, was given to Mr. Row- 
land Hill, which he intended to have printed with a 
memoir of the author, and to have dedicated the volume 
to his Surry Chapel congregation. In the notice of 
Mr. Walker's Life, Mr. Rowland Hill observes of the 
sermons — " these have been in my possession for a 
considerable time ; yet, on a re-perusal of them with a 
judicious friend, it struck me forcibly, whether, in my 
fast declining days, I could leave behind me a more 
profitable testimony of my high respect and real regard 
to the congregation I have so long served, than to print 



PREFACE. 



vii 



these sermons for their serious perusal and prayerful 
consideration." I may possibly be induced to form a 
small volume from these interesting portions of the 
papers of my departed relative. 

To those who have kindly assisted me with materials 
for the work, I beg to offer my sincere thanks, parti- 
cularly to the Rev. George Claytan, the Rev. George 
CoUison, the Rev. John Griffin, Mr. Jones of the Reli- 
gious Tract Society, and the members of Surry Chapel, 
who have sent me letters of Mr. Rowland HilL I am 
likewise much indebted to the kindness of O. P. Wa- 
then, Esq., John Broadley Wilson, Esq., Samuel Long, 
Esq. (the executor both of Mr. Rowland Hill and his 
assistant, Mr. Theophilus Jones), as well as to 
Mrs. James (late Mrs. B. Neale,) Miss Sheppard, and 
to others whose names appear in the course of the 
volume. Though differing from some of these friends 
in minor views, I trust we are all united in the common 
ties of Christian love and goodwill, looking for salva- 
tion to one common Saviour, and believing in the essen- 
tial operations of the Holy Spirit on the heart, none of 
which is more prominent than that of charity^ the very 
bond of perfectness. 

Though sincerely respecting the conscientious 
scruples of others, I cannot help venturing to express 
my devoted attachment to our Established Church, and 
my conviction that its connection with the state has 
been, and I hope will long continue to be, a blessing to 
our land. If we look at the present aspect of religion 
amongst us, I am firmly convinced that our establish- 
ment need not shrink from comparison, both as respects 
its own internal brightness, and the distant reflection 
of its light, with any other Christian community on 

b 2 



viii 



PREFACE. 



earth. The ministers of religion should be suited to 
every grade of society : from their ranks the gentle- 
man should be able to select a profitable companion, 
the inquirer a judicious guide, and the poor man a 
kind and compassionate friend ; and, happily, men 
endued with such requisites for their sacred office can 
be, at this moment, abundantly supplied from the ranks 
of our parochial clergy. Increasing holiness to purify 
is the surest forerunner of power afforded from on high 
to protect our church; and the zeal, diligence, and 
piety of her ministers, will prove a more certain defence 
than all the splendours of worldly grandeur, the policy 
of worldly wisdom, or the support of worldly strength. 

I have now only to request that the friends of 
Mr. Rowland Hill will confide to me such letters, or 
other materials, as they may think useful for any 
future edition of his life, and to add, that I shall be 
truly obliged, if I have fallen into any accidental 
error, relating either to persons or things mentioned 
in these pages, to be informed of my mistake, that I 
may correct it. 

Acle, near Nonvich, 
March 22nd, 1834. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

While I cannot refrain from expressing the gratitude 
I feel for the kind reception of the first edition of this 
volume, it is not unmingled with regret that the neces- 
sity for the rapid publication of a second has prevented 
my profiting by the judicious suggestions of experienced 
critics. Anxious to deal honourably by the public, I 



PREFACE. 



ix 



have made very few additions to the work ; those I 
have given, amongst the most interesting of which is a 
letter to Mr. Whitefield from Mr. Rowland Hill during 
his under-graduacy at Cambridge, were communicated 
to me after its appearance. In executing the arduous 
task assigned me by my esteemed relative and guardian, 
it has been my object to avoid what is generally 
termed hook-making, and to condense as much as pos- 
sible — leading my readers rather to the verge of a 
landscape, than into the minute details of its composi- 
tion, leaving the imagination to form its own concep- 
tion of the whole. 

I neither court nor expect the commendation of those 
who see only through the glass of party, which both 
distorts and tinges every object with its own peculiar 
rays ; but there are some well-known, liberal-minded, 
and respected individuals, of different opinions to my 
own, from whom I have received the kindest encou- 
ragement, as well as truly valuable and candid observa- 
tions. It is indeed a happiness for the Christian world 
that there are yet m.any of various denominations, who 
deplore and avoid the perpetual collision of those who 
profess to be carried by the same rapid stream into 
one eternal ocean of blissful unity ; and it would be 
well if all remembered the old emblem of the earthen 
vessels floating down a river with this motto, si colli- 
dimur frangimur, which was simply, but expressively, 
translated by a quaint, though admirable, divine, if we 
knock we crack ; and to this might have been added, i/* 
we crack we sink I Alas ! how many, who were for- 
getful for a short space of their own emptiness and 
brittleness, but were proud of the tinsel adornments of 
an exuberant fancy, are buried deep beneath the waters 
whence they will rise no more to glitter in the sunshine 



X 



PREFACE. 



of a vain and short-lived popularity. Such men fornix 
or embrace a new opinion, and send it forth with as 
dictatorial a spirit, and in as uncompromising a tone, 
as though it had stood the test of ages, or they them- 
selves were infallible, while all the rest of mankind are 
wrong ; so that the venerable subject of these pages 
said, in allusion to persons of this kind, with his own 
force and humour, "they have every one of them 
swallowed a pope^ and if they could be opened, would 
be found to have him still within them." It was in 
the hope that the remarks of so experienced and ripe 
a Christian as my aged relative, might tend to correct 
errors of this description, I ventured to introduce 
them into these pages ; and this I studied to do in 
reference to this and other subjects with such delicacy 
and Christian charity, that offence might be given to 
no individual, and that if the sensibility of those who 
differ from me were as delicate as the wings of a but- 
terfly, the down might not be taken off. This, I trust, 
will eventually prove to be the case, at least with all 
reasonable persons, and I hope there are thousands 
amongst us who daily supplicate a throne of grace, 
that God will be pleased to heal the breaches of those 
called by the common and sacred name of his whole 
family on earth and in heaven, and that the words of 
the Roman historian may never be applicable to us, 
dum singuli pugnant universi vincuntur. As a 
churchman, I take leave to say that our establishment 
is at this time exhibiting to every beholder a model of 
temperate forbearance, dignified calmness, and truly 
Christian patience of revilings, and that a great com- 
pany of her priests are giving to the accusations of her 
enemies, the incontrovertible refutation of a holy, 
devoted, and laborious life. May she ever pursue this 



PREFACE. 



xi 



exalted course, and she will sail, like the eagle in the 
lofty regions of the skies, far above the reach of the 
shafts of her assailants, upon whom if she cast her 
penetrating glance for an instant, it will only be in 
pity for the wasted, but not less hostile, efforts of 
those who have not the strength to send an arrow 
with sufficient force even to ruffle the radiant plumage 
of her wings. 

May 23r(l, 1834. 



THIRD EDITION. 

The kind indulgence with which this work has been 
favoured by the public, is best proved by the fact that 
two very large impressions have been circulated within 
a year. It appears also, from communications I am con- 
tinually receiving, with the request " give us more of 
Rowland Hill," that an appetite has been created for a 
largei^gttppiy of authentic information concerning him. 
However gratified I may be at the expression of such a 
desire, still I cannot think of enlarging this memoir to 
an extent that might seem unfair to the purchasers of 
former editions, though I by no means felt myself 
precluded from making those interesting and charac- 
teristic additions which will be found in the present 
volume. I am far from being indifferent to the call 
which has been made upon me, and it is ray intention 
to respond to it by a compilation of my revered rela- 
tive's best sayings, doctrinal and devotional, in which 
he will appear in the brightest of all human characters, 
the experienced Christian minister. It will be my 
endeavour to form an interesting record of his excel- 
lent thoughts and precepts, in those happy moments 



xii 



PREFACE. 



when his spirit seemed to rise far above the world, 
and all his desires, passions, and affections, unin- 
fluenced by the puny attractions of time, were evi- 
dently concentrated in an intense longing for the 
eternal interests of the souls of men. As his bio- 
grapher, it was my province to describe his character, 
habits, opinions, and intercourse with others, as they 
really were, and to take care that my fidelity was 
not overpowered by any motives, not even those of 
gratitude and tenderness ; but in my proposed col- 
lection of his finest sayings I shall have no such 
difficulty to contend with, and my only care will be 
not to obscure one of them by the shadow of any 
earthly appendage. Locke well observes, that " when 
God makes the saint, he does not unmake the man." 
In these pages I have endeavoured to give a portrait 
of my beloved guardian as a Christian man^ and have 
not, I trust, permitted the ideal the former to impart 
to the reality of the latter a glare of such colouring as 
is untrue to human nature : in my next book, if I am 
spared to complete it, I shall have only to delineate 
the pious Christian and the watchful pastor. As I 
am aware that many persons were in the habit of 
treasuring up some of those incomparable ideas, which 
he uttered at times of almost seeming inspiration, I 
take this opportunity of soliciting their assistance in 
my design to perpetuate the useful remembrance of 
illustrations of truth, that may be made instrumental 
to the good of numbers both now and in years yet to 
come. 

Ade, Ma7j .\, 1835. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Antiquity of the Hill family , 1 

The first Sir Rowland Hill 2 

The Great HiU 3 

The Hawkstone Family, and birth of Mr. Rowland Hill 6 

Rowland Hill in childhood 9 

His piety when a boy 10 

Letter of Mr. Richard Hill addressed to his brothers at Eton, . 10 

Mr. Richard Hill's early sense of religion 12 

Mr. Richard Hill's distress of mind 13 

Kindness of Mr. Fletcher 14 

Relief of Mr. Richard Hill's mind 15 

His anxiety for his brother Rowland 16* 

Rowland's progress in reli^ijion 17 

Is made useful at Eton 18 

A religious society formed by the voung converts. 18 

Candour of Mr. Richard Hill. . . .'. , 19 

Advice of Miss Hill to her brother Rowland before his going to 

Cambridge 19 

Mr. Rowland Hill at Cambridge 20 

His acquaintance sought by Mr. Berridge 21 

His frequent visits to Everton 23 

Begins preaching while an under- graduate at Cambridge, 1766. 

Meets with great opposition 24 

Consults Mr. Whitefield. Mr. Whitefield's first letter 25 

Extracts from Mr. Rowland Hill's diary, I767 26 

His perseverance in preaching 27 

Second letter of Mr. Whitefield, who encourages him to proceed 28 

Continuance of Mr. Rowland Hill's labours 30 

Is visited in college by two pious Danes. An extract from their 

diary 31 

Long vacation of I767 32 

Third letter of Mr. Whitefield 33 

Mr. Rowland Hill preaches while at home 33 

Fourth letter of Mr. Whitefield 34 

Mr. Rowland Hill's depression. Extracts from his diary .... 35 

He visits Lady Huntingdon on his return to Cambridge 36 

Corresponds with zealous young men at Oxford 37 

Expulsion of six students from St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, 1 768 38 

Their cause espoused by Mr. Richard Hill 40 

Mr. Rowland Hill continues his exertions 41 

His letter to Mr. Whitefield 42 

His skill in athletic exercises . ^ 45 

His diligence in his studies 46 

Takes his degree, 1769 47 



xiy CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The dlfFerent views of his college friends. Influence of Mr. Ber- 

ridge 48 

Account of Mr. Berridge and his coadjutors. John Stittle 49 

Effects of Mr. Hill's labours , 50 

CHAPTER H. 

Mr. Rowland Hill refused orders by six bishops 51 

Condolence of his friends 52 

Advice of Mr. Berridge 53 

Mr. Richard Hill declines preaching. His brother's attachment 

to the Church service 54 

Scruples of some of Mr. Rowland Hill's friends about subscription 55 

Mr. Berridge and his followers. His advice to Mr. Rowland Hill 56 

Mr. Rowland Hill is commended by Mr. Wesley, 1770 57 

His first visits to Bristol, and distress, 1771 58 

Extracts from his diary. First sermon at Devizes 59 

Letter of Mr. Berridge , 60 

Mr. Rowland Hill's journal , 61 

Field preaching 64 

Early five o'clock preachings , 65 

June 16, 177 Ij comes for the first time to Wotton-under-edge. 

Anecdote 66 

His progress in the West. Anecdote 67 

Letter from Mr. Shipman, one of the expelled from Oxford. ... 68 

Letter from Mr. Hunt of Bristol, 1772. Anecdote 69 

Letter of Mr. Berridge 70 

Mr. Rowland Hill revives Mr. Whitefield's cause in London, 

1772. His wonderful success 71 

Captain Joss , 72 

Butcher Hogg «... 73 

Mr. Hill takes his A.M. degree 74 

An address of Mr. Rowland Hill in 1772 75 

His views of the divine decrees , 76 

His defence of his doctrines against Mr. Wesley , . . 77 

CHAPTER HL 

Mr. Rowland Hill prepares for marriage and orders. 78 

His first letter to Miss Tudway 79 

Mr. Tudway's interest in his ordination 81 

Letters to Miss Tudway 82 

Mr. Rowland Hill's Journal, 1773 86 

Invitation of Mr. Ryland 87 

Letter to Miss Tudway 88 

Mr. Rowland Hill in prospect of orders 89 

His marriage and ordination 90 

Preaches his first sermon after ordination in St. Werburgh's, 

Bristol. Account of Mr. Rouquet 91 

Visit to Kingswood 92 

Mr. Rowland Hill at his curacy Q3 

Letter from Mr. Berridge 94 



CONTENTS. XV 

PAGE 

Berridge and Fletcher. Ryland. Hervey. Newton 95 

Mr. Rowland Hill refused priest's orders. His own remark. Is 
pleased when invited to preach in a church ; but wants a 

Hale moi'e liberty than the church allows 9^ 

His unequalled strength and spirits ! 97 

His first sermon after his mother's decease 98 

Sheridan. Ambrose Serle. Dean Milner 99 

CHAPTER IV. 

Mr. Hill's first sermon in \H1^, at Tottenham Court Chapel. 

His journal 100 

Richmond; awful event 101 

Gloucester, Wiltshire, Wales 1 02 

Field campaigns. Anecdote of Howell Harris 103 

Popularity of Mr. Rowland Hill in Wales. Jumpers 1 04 

Remarkable conversions , 105 

Trevecca. Wesleyan controversy 106 

Wotton , Ill 

Increasing congregations in every place visited by Mr. Rowland 

Hill. Varied scenes of labour 112 

Death of Mr. Powis, 1774. Sir Charles Middleton, afterwards 

Lord Barham ........ e 

Love Feasts. Sailors 115 

Mr. Rowland Hill stopped by highwaymen : he frightens them 

away 1 1 6 

His mode of giving notice of his preaching 117 

Anecdote of a gardener employed by Mr. Rowland Hill 118 

Mr. Rowland Hill's unwearied diligence 119 

CHAPTER V. 

Remarkable conversions, 1775 120 

Societas Evangelica. Penitents 121 

Notices given to Mr. Rowland Hill in the pulpit 122 

Characteristic anecdote 123 

Sir Harry Trelawny 124 

Mistakes of Mr. Rowland Hill 126 

-Mr. Richard Hill. Mr. Hallward 127 

Hon. and Rev. W. B. Cadogan. Death of Rouquet 128 

Funeral sermon 129 

Sunday addresses to children 130 

Prison scenes — deep feeling of Mr. Rowland Hill 131 

Continuance of the Wesleyan controversy, 1777 1^2 

Death and funeral of Toplady, 1778. Mr. Rowland Hill's 

powerful address at the interment 134 

Letter of Mr. Matthews, giving an account of the last moments 

of Toplady 135 

Wesley and Mr. Richard Hill , 137 

Newton. Romaine. Cowper the poet 138 

Design of the erection of Surry Chapel 139 



XVI 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

Surry Chapel, 1782 141 

Sermon at laying the foundation-stone 1 42 

Sermon at the opening, June 8, 1783. Alarming occurrence . . 143 

Original trustees of Surry Chapel. Mr. Rowland Hill shot at. . 145 

Death of Sir Rowland Hill. Supplies at Surry Chapel 146 

Benevolent Society, 1784 147 

Alms-houses. Dorcas Society, &c 1 48 

Prayer meetings . , 149 

Situation of Surrv Chapel 150 

Sir Richard Hill 151 

Spread of infidelity 152 

Welsh sermons in Surry Chapel 154 

Letter of Peter Brown, a Moravian missionary in Antigua , . 155 

Missions 159 

Mr. Venn, of Yelling. His letters to Mr. Rowland Hill l6l 

Testimony of Mr. Venn to the high and useful character of 

Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge , l63 

CHAPTER Vll. 

Sunday schools, 1786 165 

Mr. Rowland Hill's Hymns for Children corrected and improved 

by the poet Cowper. His letter on the subject l66 

Remarks on an expression in Cowper's letter l67 

A happy death. Illness of Mr. Venn. His patience and resig- 
nation expressed in a letter, 1791 •• 1^'9 

Extraordinary conversions 170 

Anecdote of Mr. Rowland Hill 171 

Modes of preaching described. Droll sayings 172 

Wise course pursued by Mr. Rowland Hill during the French 

revolution „ 174 

Death of Mr. Berridge. His epitaph. 1 75 

Ireland. Strolling players. Expostulatory address 177 

Formation of the London Missionary Society, 1795 178 

Missionary day at Surry Chapel. Instance of generosity. Con- 
versation in the evening 180 

Missionary communion. Dr. Steinkopff. Ireland 184 

First visit of Mr. Rowland Hill to Scotland, 1798 185 

Return to Wotton 192 

Admonition of the General Assembly. Establishments 193 

Effects of controversy during Mr. Rov\4and Hill's second visit to 

Scotland, 1799 195 

CHAPTER VIIL 



Mr. Rowland Hill's mode of preaching, 



198 to 212 



CONTENTS. 



xvil 



CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 



Religious Tract Society. Moving speeches 213 

Characteristic letter of Mr. Rowland Hill when asked to take 

the chair at a meeting 214 

Long speeches and fioiwishcs in the pulpit ^ 21 6 

Interesting notice handed to Mr. Rowland Hill in the pulpit . . 217 

V^isits to the sick. Hymn 218 

Village Dialogues 219 

Letters of Mr. Ambrose Serle 220 

Sale of Curates 225 

Warning to Professors. Opinion of Mr. Ambrose Serle 226* 

Surry Chapel communicants. Bible Society 227 

Cambridge Auxiliary 228 

Vaccination. Dr. Jenner 229 

Converted farmers , 230 

Death of Sir Richard Hill, 1808 231 

Cheltenham. A chapel erected there through Mr. Rowland 

Hill's influence 232 

Mr. Rowland Hill's amusements 233 

CHAPTER X. 

My own recollections of Mr. Rowland Hill 234 

Anecdotes 235 

An election anecdote 237 

Cheltenham. Accident to Mr. Rowland Hill 239 

Visit to Cheltenham, 1812 241 

Services of Sir Rowland Hill. His kindness. Called the 

soldier's friend." Elected member for Shrewsbury 242 

Illuminations. Transparency at Surry Chapel 244 

Lord Hill. Interesting breakfast. Receives his sword from 

the city of London 245 

Illness of Mr. Rowland Hill. His letters to Mr. Wathen when 

recovering 247 

His first walk after he recovered. An aid-de-camp of the 

Emperor Alexander 251 

CHAPTER XL 

Mr. Rowland Hill's opinion of the festivities at the conclusion 

of the war 254 

Singular fatigues of Mr. Rowland Hill. Qualifications of 

preachers 255 

The Neale family . . „ 257 

Letters from Mr. Rowland Hill to Mrs. B. Neale 258 

Attempt to assess Surry Chapel to the rates 26 1 

Churchmen and Dissenters 262 

Interesting anecdote 263 

Jacob. Oratorios at Surry Chapel 264 

Theophilus Jones. Advice given him by Mr. Rowland Hill, 

1816 266 



XVlll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Village preaching 270 

Qualifications for the ministerial work. Good temper. Dry 

sermons, &c. 271 

CHAPTER XII. 

Village itinerancy 273 

Letter of Mr. Rowland Hill to a Sunday school teacher 275 

Necessity of exertions at home 278 

Seamen. Waterloo-bridge 279 

Missionary museum. Matthew Wilks 280 

Fruits of missionary zeal 281 

Wilberforce. Inconsistences of professors of religion 282 

South seas. Present to Pomarre 283 

Deaths. Letter of Mr. Rowland Hill to Mrs. B. Neale 284 

Accident to Mr. Rowland Hill „ 286 

Letter to Mr. Jones. Sanctified affliction. Holy patience. 

Rebukes 286 

Mr. Hill on a missionary tour. Letters to Mr. Jones, to J. Broad- 
ley Wilson, Esq., and to a young minister in sickness .... 289 

CHAPTER XIIL 

The Society at Surry Chapel 297 

Letter to the author on his ordination, 1821, from Mr. Rowland 

Hill 298 

Missionary journey. Illness from over exertion 301 

Act of liberality 303 

Eastern missionary tour. Accident to Mr. Rowland Hill. Letter 

to Mr. Jones. Recovery 304 

Mr. Rowland Hill's mode of travelling, and high spirits 309 

Mr. Rowland Hill's last journey to Scotland, 1824 310 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Pastoral character, ministerial advice, and charities of Mr. 

Rowland Hill 315 to 327 

CHAPTER XV. 

Mrs. Rowland Hill submits to a severe operation. Her danger 

and recovery, 328 

Socinians 330 

Visit to Mrs. Hannah More. Lively correspondence. Presents 

for children, &c 331 

Mr. Rowland Hill at eighty-two. Spirituality of his sermons. . 335 
His likeness taken by Miss Sheppard for a benevolent purpose. 

His letters on the subject 337 

A Bronwydd dialogue, with a soliloquy 342 

Journey into Wales, 1827 344 

Affection of Mr. Rowland Hill's hearers 346 

Lord Hill. Mr. J. Broadley Wilson 347 

Cheltenham. Mr. Close 348 

Fidelity of Mr. Rowland Hill's servants 349 



CONTENTS. xix 

CHAPTER XVI. 

PAGE 

Prophecy 350 

Letter on the subject from Mr. Rowland Hill 352 

1828. Bath. Mr. Jay 353 

Cheltenham. Fs and Q's 354 

Religion a reality 355 

A visit, in 1829, to Mr. Rowland Hill, at Wotton 356 

Mr. Rowland Hill on his eighty-fifth birth-day 357 

A church missionary meeting 359 

Letter of Mr. Rowland HHl 360 

Bible Society, 1830 362 

Mr. Wilberforce. Lord Teignmouth , 364 

CHAPTER XVn. 

An account of the last illness and death of Mrs. Rowland Hill. . 365 
Mr. Rowland Hill's state of mind under his bereavement evinced 

by his letters 367 

Character of Mrs. Rowland Hill 370 

Letter to Mr. Jones on attending the Monday evening meetings 

at Surry Chapel 371 

Leamington. Difficulties about using the liturgy in Mr. Hill's 

chapel. What sort of an evil is a sectarian spirit } 373 

Forms of prayer , 374 

Letters of Mr. Rowland Hill on prophecy 375 

Quotation from Bishop Hall 377 

Mr. Rowland Hill's views as to his successor 378 

CHAPTER XVIH. 

Bible Society, 1831 380 

Mr. Rowland Hill's last missionary day at Surry Chapel 382 

Gift of tongues. The Christian pilgrimage 383 

Accident to Mr. Rowland Hill 387 

Valley of humiliation , 388 

Mr. Rowland Hill recovers after great suffering. Letters of 

Mr. Rowland Hill 389 

Mr. Rowland Hill's increasing debility 392 

His faith. Wishes to attend the Bible Society, 1832 393 

The author's last visit to Mr. Rowland Hill, at Wotton 394 

Letter to Rev. J. Langley 397 

Old Bigotry. Letter of Mr. Rowland Hill 399 

Party spirit 400 

Solemn deportment of Mr. Rowland Hill 401 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Christian sabbath. Mr. Rowland Hill's enjoyment of it. 

Devotional rhymes 403 

Some of the ladies of Mr. Rowland Hill's congregation present 

him with an easy chair for the pulpit. His letter of thanks 406 

He desires to be succeeded by a clergyman 40.7 

Is of opinion that the clergy should have power to admit certain 

visitors to their pulpits 408 



XX CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Proposal for a droll advertisement 409 

Mr. Rowland Hill's last letter to the author 4l0 

His last sermon, March 31, 1833 'i-H 

Address to Sunday school teachers. Last illness 412 

Prayer of the Dying Christian 414 

Death, April 11, 1833. A beautiful cast taken of him by Deville 41 6' 

The funeral 417 

Mr. Rowland Hill's laborious life and consistent character. 

Anecdotes 420 

Mr. Rowland Hill's appearance. His theological opinions .... 422 

Danger of imitating his extraordinary course 423 

Beautiful saying of Mr. Rowland Hill. His writings 424! 

Juvenile works 425 

Village Dialogues 426 

Responsibility of ministers 427 

Tablet and bust to the memory of Mr. Rowland Hill, designed 

for Surry Chapel 418 

CHAPTER XX, 

Retrospective view of religion during the last century 429 

Defective theology 430 

Luke warmness and error in some, exceptions in others. Opposition 43 1 

Whitefield and Wesley. Difference of their dispositions 432 

Conversion. Enthusiasm of Wesley 433 

Wesley's sermon on predestination 434 

Romaine. Sir Harry Trelawny. Anecdote 435 

Edward Spencer 436 

Berridge 437 

Whitefield's want of system 438 

Wesley's watch-nights. Love-feasts. Classes. Bands. White- 
field's evident sincerity 439 

Controversy. Berridge's advice to Mr. Rowland Hill 440 

Mr. Rowland Hill's resemblance to Whitefield, whose cause he 

revives 441 

Mr. Rowland Hill's first sermon at his curacy, called The Gospel 

Message, quoted in proof of his doctrines. Original sin . . 442 
Invitations to sinners. Extract from Mr. Rowland Hill's sermon 

on the death of Rouquet . , , 444 

Plato's view of human nature. Union of good men 445 

Admirable resolution of John Wesley forgotten in controversy. 

Perfection 446 

Mr. Fletcher 448 

Sunday Schools. Education 449 

Mr. Rowland Hill's regard for the church 450 

Preparation for the ministry 451 

Independency 452 

Wrong attacks on the church 453 

Need of due training for the ministry 454 

Value of academical studies 455 

Excellence of Mr. Rowland Hill's character 456 

Conclusion „ 457 



THE LIFE 

OF 

THE REV, ROWLAND HILL, 



CHAPTER I. 

Antiquity of the Hill family. 

The distinguished family of the Hills is both ancient 
and widely extended. It is probable that their original 
seat was at Hulle, now called Court of Hill, an 
elevated and beautiful spot on the south side of a hill, 
named the Titters tone Clee, in the chapelry of Nash, 
and parish of Burford, in the county of Salop. Mr. 
Blakeway, a very eminent and accurate Shropshire 
antiquary, informs us that the earliest notice he has 
found of them is in the 30th of Edward I, in a deed 
granted to certain persons by the prior and monks of 
Worcester, and which is attested, among other wit- 
nesses, by William and Adam de la Hull ; to the 
former of whom it is also upon record that lands were 
granted, by William de Mortimer, canon of Hereford, 
at a period of as early a date as December 13th, 1311. 
Grants of land, it has likewise been ascertained, were 
made to the then existing chaplain of Nash by William 
de la Hulle, to pray for the souls of himself, Alice his" ' 



2 



The first Sir Rowland HilL 



late wife, and two others, in the 5th of Edward III. 
William de la Hulle had a son called Hugh de Hull 
of Hull, who married and removed into the nortE-^ 
eastern quarter of Shropshire, and from him was 
descended Sir Rowland Hill, the first Protestant lord 
mayor of London, who occupied the civic chair in 
1549, and died without issue, bequeathing his large 
estates to the children of his sisters. The following 
account of him is given in Grafton's Abridgement of 
the Chronicles of Eiiglande, dated 1570. — '^ Thjs^ 
maior Sir Rowlande Hill was a grave and worthy father 
of the cytye, and long before his death gave over his 
occupying and gave himself wholy to purchasyng of 
landes, having never a childe in the worlde. The 
greatest part of his lands lay in Shropshire, where he 
bare great rule and where also, as I have heard by 
credible report, he did many good deedes, namely that 
he raysed no rentes, nor took any fines of his tenants. 
He suffered the childe to enjoy the father's farme 
before al other ; he was the frend of the wydow and 
the fatherles ; he erected a grammer schoole to the 
profyt of the countrey ; he repaired many hyghe wayes 
and brydges. And wheresoever a good deede was to 
bee doone for the common weale of hys countreymen 
he was redy to further the same. He gave yearly to 
y^ poore people of the countrey three hundred shirtes 
and smockes, and as many coates of fryse to cover 
them withall. And in the cytye of London he gave 
five hundred pond to Saint Bartholomews Hospital 
towards the building of certain newe tenementes in 
Saynt Nicholas Shambles for the reliefe of the poore ; 
he also gave a great reliefe to all the hospitalles, and 
at hys death he gave one hundred pond to the poore 
of all the wardes in Lodon." A younger son of the 



The Great Hill. 



3 



branch of the family, to whom Sir Rowland Hill left 
his estates, was a person of consideration in the 
reign of Henry VI, and from him descended a Row- 
land Hill, styled of Hawkstone, in 1592, who was 
father of Rowland Hill, born in 1594, and he of 
another Rowland, born in 1623, who died and was 
buried at Hod net, in November, 1700, and whose 
eldest son of his own name died mimarried, so 
that Richard his second son became the great founder 
of this branch of the family. This meritorious 
person was born March 23, 1654. He was edu- 
cated at the grammar school in Shrewsbury, and 
entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1675. 
He became a fellow of his college, and is reported to 
have entered into deacon's orders, which was no doubt 
the case, as there is good authority for the fact that 
King William III highly commended his vigilance, 
capacity, and virtue," in the exercise of his clerical 
functions. Mr. Hill was engaged by Laurence Earl 
of Rochester, on account of his distinguished talents, 
as tutor to his son. Lord Hyde, and while in this 
situation he was noticed by the Earl of Ranelagh, 
paymaster of the forces to King James, and conti- 
nued in the same office by King William, on whose 
recommendation he was appointed deputy paymaster 
to the army sent into Flanders in 1691. In this office, 
which he held during the entire war, he acquitted 
himself with great reputation. He prevented, by his 
conciliatory and judicious conduct, the mutiny of the 
soldiers for want of pay, during a whole campaign, 
and was in very high credit with the Dutch. Nay, it 
has been even said that he sometimes could raise 
money upon his own credit, when that of King 
William failed ; and it is certain that he steered 

B 2 



4 



The Great Hill. 



through circumstances of the greatest embarrassment 
with admirable ability and prudence. During this 
war, in the intervals of his employment with the army, 
Mr. Hill was occasionally sent as envoy extraordinary 
to the princes allied with William against the power 
of France, and, at the peace of Ryswick, was de- 
spatched in the same capacity to the court of Turin, 
and on his return home was made a lord of the 
treasury. In this office he continued till the accession 
of Queen Anne, when Lord Godolphin obtained the 
treasurer's staff, and the treasury was taken out of 
commission ; but he was made a lord of the admiralty, 
a station which he occupied till the Earl of Pembroke, 
on the death of the Prince of Denmark, was appointed 
lord high admiral. 

When the Duke of Savoy, who had joined the 
cause of France, having been both neglected and 
insulted by Louis XIV, began to repent his defection 
from the allies, Mr. Hill was chosen to take advantage 
of these symptoms of regret, and was sent out as 
minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary to 
all the states of Italy, v/ith the exception of that of the 
pope. At Turin he met with a most gracious recep- 
tion, and concluded, in October, 1703, by consummate 
management and skill, a treaty of great importance, 
which he always regarded as the highest achievement 
of his political life, and has recorded it in an epitaph 
written by himself for his tomb at Hodnet. He 
received another nomination, of a similar kind, in 
1710, but was obliged by the effects of a painful 
disease to decline the journey. 

These various employments enabled Mr. Hill to 
amass a splendid fortune. His upright father, sur- 
prised at the rapid increase of his wealth, said, " My 



The GreatHm. 



5 



son Dick makes money very fastj God^^§en4 
gets it honestly." This apprehension was, however, 
groundless, for Speaker Onslow observes^, Jlbis.. est^^^ 
was very large, all acquired by hiniself, but without ; 
any reproach as to the manner of it, that I ever heard 
of." In fact, during the severe scrutiny that took 
place, at the commencement of the reign of Queen 
Ann^ into the conduct of the public men of the 
last reign, and when Mr. Hill's own patron, Lord 
Ranelagh, was punished by expulsion for wrong con- 
duct in his office, not even a whisper of calumny was 
breathed against him. He was considered a man of 
virtue equal to his abilities, beloved by all parties, and 
has been remarked as an instance of the real wisdom 
and policy of strict and unbending uprightness. In 
the latter part of his life he retired to Kichmond, 
where he attracted most of the eminent persons of his 
day, and was much noticed by the royal family ; the 
more so, perhaps, because, though a Tory, he was a 
zealous defender of the Hanoverian succession. He 
was strongly urged to accept a bishopric, which he , 
refused, by t was elected fellow of Eton ; and it is 
said that he wished to become provost, as Sir Henry 
Wotton had been under similar circumstances, but he 
4ied^ Avithout attaining the object of his desires, on 
July Jl, at the advanced age of seventy-seven. 

He is known by the name of the Greaf}Ii\X^. '' a title," 
says Mr. Blake way, in his 'Sheriffs of Shropshire^ 
" to which he is justly entitled from the number of 
affluent families which he founded." 

To this celebrated individual the family of the late 
Rev. Rowland Hill are indebted for the baronetcy and 
the mansion at Hawkstone. His next brother, John^ 
born March 23, 1655, settled at Wem, in Shropshire^ 



6 



TJie Hawkstone family. 



for whose son, the late Sir Rowland Hill, he pro- 
cured the title of baronet, and built the house which 
had the honour to be the ])irth-place of the venerable 
individual, whose life, devoted to the service of God, 
and the interests of his fellow-creatures, we are now 
about to trace. 

The Rev. Rowland Hill was the sixth son of the 
last mentioned Sir Rowland Hill, baronet, of Hawk- 
stone, in the chapelry of Weston, and parish of Hod- 
net, under Red Castle, in which one of his ancestors 
was confined for his adherence to the cause of Charles I. 
He is generally supposed to have been the fourth son, 
which mistake has originated from its not being 
known that two brothers, born before him, died in 
infancy. He was born at Hawkstone, on August 23, 
1745. His mother, Latly Hill, was the daughter of 
Sir Brian Broughton, of Broughton, baronet ; and on 
her death, Sir Rowland Hill married Mary, widow of 
Thomas Powis, Esq., and daughter of German Pole, 
Esq. of Radbourn, in the county of Derby, by whom 
he had no issue. Sir Rowland Hill was sheriff of 
Shropshire in 1732, and was elected member of par- 
liament for the city of Lichfield in 1734 and 1740. 
The name of Mr. Rowland Hill's eldest brother was 
Richard, afterwards, on the death of his father, Sir 
Richard Hill, baronet, and who was well known as 
the author of Pietas Oxoniensis, published on the 
Oxford expulsion in 1768, and of many other pamph- 
lets, particularly those connected with the celebrated 
controversy between Wesley and the Calvinists. He 
was also returned to parliament for his native county 
at six successive elections, and was on all occasions 
the zealous advocate of the cause of religion and 
humanity, which he defended with an energy that no 



The Haiokstone family. 



7 



hostility or ridicule in the slightest degree diminished, 
though he had perpetually to encounter both. The 
next in succession was his brother John, who, at the 
death of Sir Richard Hill, became possessed of the 
family title and estates, and was the father of Lord 
Hill and his gallant brothers, who passed through the 
dangers of the Peninsular war, survived with honour 
and distinction, though not without wounds, the car- 
nage of Waterloo, and whose names will ever be con- 
spicuotts in the annals of their country's military glory. 
Sir John Hill was the father of thirteen children, and 
wMXTlive^ them escaped the daily chances and perils 
of war, his eldest son fell a victim to a cold, caught in 
superintending some improvements in the family 
estates, most sincerely regretted by every one who 
enjoyed the pleasure of his acquaintance or knew his 
kind and excellent disposition. The present Sir Row- 
land Hill, baronet, and member of parliament for the 
northern division of Shropshire, is the son of this 
p lamented gentleman, whose death occasioned Mr. Row- 
1 land Hill a poignancy of grief which it required all the 
l~powefsnoFIiis habitual resignation to the divine will to 
I calm aM subdue. It was the distinguished lot of Sir 
John Hill to have five sons in the battle of Waterloo, 
and it was his singular happiness in his old age to 
welcome them all, full of fame and honours, in the 
mansion of his family ; and on one occasion it was 
remarked that there sat on the same side of his table 
the Rowland Hills of three generations — the subject 
of these memoirs, Rowland Lord Hill, and the present 
baronet of that name. The delight enjoyed by the 
aged father was rendered, if possible, even more ex- 
quisite by the manner in which he was received, as 
the parent of such heroes, by his late Majesty George 



8 



The Hawkatorie family. 



the Fourth, who welcomed him with unusual cor- 
diality, saying with his own peculiar grace, " I am 
extremely happy to see the father of so many brave 
sons. 

~ Hill had another elder brother, Tho- 

mas,, who resided at Frees, in Shropshire, and a younger 
one, Robert, of the Hough, in Cheshire, who was the 
incumbent of a preferment in the gift of his family : 
he was also a magistrate, and the father of John Hill, 
Esq., attorney-general of Chester, and twelve other 
children. His youngest brother was the Rev. Brian 
Hill, who lived at Weston, near Hawkstone, and was 
long the intimate friend of JBishop Heber. Mr. Brian 
Hill was a man of very refined understanding, and 
was both a poet and a scholar, but of retired habits. 
Though prevented, by conscientious scruples, from 
accepting any benefice in the church, he was, never- 
theless, ardently attached to her doctrines and liturgy. 
He published a religious poem, called Henry and 
Acasto, and Travels through Sicily and Calabria. He 
was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, and was 
chaplain to the Earl of Leven and Melville. 

There were two sisters in this remarkable family ; 
Miss Jane Hill, whose pious and excellent advice to 
her brother Rowland, when at school and at college, 
will soon be noticed in this work ; and Mrs. Tudway, 
the lady of Clement Tudway, Esq., member of parlia- 
ment for Wells, in Somersetshire, and many years the 
father of the House of Commons. Only a few years 
ago, there were living at the same time five of these 
individuals, each of whose ages exceeded seventy ; but 
the grave has now closed over them all ; and the last 
that survived was the venerable minister of Christ 
whose history engages our attention. 



Rowland Hill in childhood. 







When a boy in the midst of his family, little Ro^v^^ 
land was much noticed for the liveliness of his manner, 
^liSSTthat redundant flow of spirits which never failed 
him in his latest years. Once, when yet a child, he 
was brought into the room to his father and mxother, 
and their company, when somebody said to him play- 
fully — "Well, Rowley, and what should you like to be?" 
— He looked archly towards his father, who was sitting 
in an arm-chair, and said, " I should like to be a baro- 
net, and sit in a great chair" — an answer altogether 
the reverse of his untiring activity in after life. No- 
thing ever escaped the observation of his bright and 
penetrating eye ; persons and things were equally 
noticed by him, and his original and playful remarks 
were treasured up by his family for many years. He 
used, to the latest period of his life, to revert with the 
liveliest expressions of pleasure to the drolleries of his 
childhood, and would relate, in his own inimitable 
manner, the stories his mother had told him of his 
" pranks " before he went to school. The actions of 
his earliest days were all indicative of a frank and open 
mind, and of a character perfectly transparent, with a 
disposition entirely free from any thing approaching to 
reserve or concealment; and it was the exceeding open- 
ness of his heart, joined to numerous qualities, such as 
are possessed by few persons in this life, that rendered 
him so cordially beloved and confided in by all his 
friends. 

Young Rowland, as soon as he was considered of 
sufficient age by his family, was sent to school a,t 
Eton ; and it was during the days of His boyhood that 
the^fifst beams of that spiritual light, which he for so 
many years reflected in all its purity and brightness, 
were shed upon his soul. The opening flowers of his 



10 



His piety when a hoy. 



mind were consecrated to God ; and his conceptions of 
the truths of religion, at this early age, were so lumi- 
nous and distinct, that he never saw occasion to alter 
his first views in any essential particular ; and in the 
midst of all the varied fancies of enthusiasts, which 
often surrounded and distressed him, he had never, he 
said, with the warmest expressions of thankfulness to 
God, been led away from the simple notions of the 
doctrines of grace he had adopted in the morning of 
his days. 

His brother Richard, who was considerably older 
than himself, and who had long been impressed with 
the most serious views of the importance of religion, 
was made the means of his conversion. He began 
to address him, both by reading and conversation, 
during the Christmas holidays of 1761, with the 
earnest and truly fraternal desire of winning him to 
Christ. The first letter, amongst the papers of 
Mr. Rowland Hill, manifesting the deep anxiety of his 
brother Richard to be made the means of communica- 
ting to the other members of the familj^ the light 
which had been enkindled in his own bosom, is the 
following, addressed to him and his brother Robert, at 
Eton. 

MY DEAR BROTHERS, London, Uth Feb, 1762. 

Though I direct this to Rowley, yet it is 
equally intended for one as well as the other of you, 
I I and I hope it will find you both pressing forward 
towards the prize of the high calling of Christ Jesus 
that is set before you. 

Letters to inquire after our poor perishing bodies 
are common enough, but alas ! how few are wrote 
with a single view of promoting the salvation of our 



Letter of Mr. Richard Hill, 



11 



precious immortal souls, even by those, perhaps, who 
have a great deal of the outward form of religion, but 
are ignorant of the life and power of it. But surely, 
whilst we have the Bible in our hands, we can never 
be deluded to think that God can be pleased with the 
externals of religion whilst our hearts are far from 
him. No ! the Scripture assures us that none but 
those who have seen their lost state by nature, and who 
are made the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, 
shall ever inherit the promises : and oh ! how dreadful 
is the thought, to be cast out for ever and ever from 
the presence of God, into that lake which burneth with 
fire and brimstone, where their worm dieth not, and 
their fire is not quenched : where there is weeping, 
wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Before I was of your 
age, my dear brothers, it pleased God to shew me the 
necessity of caring for my soul, but like too many in 
that season of life, I presumptuously depended on my 
youth, and thought I might indulge myself a little 
longer in pleasure, and that I should have time enough 
to turn to God when I grew older. But now I am 
well convinced of the folly and wickedness of such 
deceitful dealing with God, for if he had cut me off in 
that state, as most justly he might, I must have been 
undone for ever. Take care, therefore, my dear 
brothers, that you do not trifle with God in a matter 
of so much consequence, and suffer not yourselves to 
be led away by the bad example of your schoolfellows ; 
but pray earnestly for grace to keep you amidst all the 
snares and temptations that continually beset you, 
[and] doubt not but your prayer, if it be offered in 
sincerity, shall be heard. 

I have nothing more to add at present, than, with 
my sincere prayer that God may take you both to his 



12 Mr. Richard Hiirs early sense of religion. 

protection, and enable you to build up one another in 
the faith of Christ, and that he may bless this letter to 
your souls' good, and make us all brethren in grace, as 
well as by nature, to conclude, my dear brothers, 
Yours most affectionately, 

Richard Hill. 

Mr. Richard Hill, who was made the instrument of 
the conversion of his brother Rowland, became himself 
religious at an early age : and, as he has left in his 
own handwriting a very remarkable narrative of his 
first impressions and experience, the account of these 
workings of his young mind cannot be deemed un- 
worthy of being here alluded to. He represents him- 
self as having felt, when only between eight and nine 
years of age, on repeating the catechism one Sunday 
evening, such a drawing up of his heart to heavenly 
objects, as made every thing else appear insipid and 
contemptible. This, however, was but a transient im- 
pression, which vanished as soon as he withdrew with 
the rest of his schoolfellows. He remained about two 
years longer at school, in Shropshire, where he felt 
frequent checks of conscience, and was often much 
alarmed at the thoughts of death ; after which he was 
removed to Westminster, still pursued by his early con- 
victions, which he tried in vain to allay " with Felix's 
opium — at a more convenient season I will hear theeT 
He could not extinguish the hidden fire that burned 
within his soul ; and arguing with himself, that as he 
was not too young to be conscious of his rebellion 
against God, so his age could not be so tender, but that 
if he died he must be shut out from his presence, he 
seems to have remained in the most agonizing suspense 
between his natural love of worldly amusements, and 



Mr. Richard HiWs distress o f mind. 



13 



his consciousness of the necessity of a life of religion. 
After being four or five years at Westminster, he was 
confirmed, and made many resolutions of amendment 
on that occasion ; but he found no comfort, no satis- 
factory evidence of his being in a safe condition. Soon 
after this, he fell into a state of the gloomiest scepti- 
cism : clouds overshadowed him in his way, which was 
nevertheless occasionally cheered by beams of light and 
comfort which broke through them. Sometimes he 
doubted every thing ; then he was fully persuaded of 
all the truths of Christianity ; there was no medium ; 
and at length, not finding any permanent satisfaction, 
he endeavoured for a time, by following eagerly the 
vain pursuits and evil example of his schoolfellows, and 
laying aside all inquiries, to divert his thoughts into 
another channel. 

From Westminster he went, at about seventeen or 
eighteen years of age, to Magdalen College, Oxford, 
where he remained four or " five years7 e^^^ 
but unable, to lull his awakened conscience into sleep, 
and even murmuring against God, because he would 
not permit him to sin with the same relentless satis- 
faction he thought he saw in his companions. From 
Oxford he went abroad for two years, where, to use 
his own expression, he realized the truth of the words 
of Horace : 

Ccelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. 

He was followed by the same convictions, perplexed 
by the same doubts ; partially convinced by his former 
reasonings with himself— now a penitent — then in- 
volved in a vortex of gaiety and pleasure, in which his 
conscience would suddenly smite him, and bring him to 
his knees in prayer, with the most solemn resolutions 



14 



Kindness of Mr. Fletcher. 



of amendment. In this state of mind he returned to 
England in the summer of 1757. 

About October, in this year, he was overwhelmed 
with the most entire conviction of his danger ; he saw 
the awfulness of God in his wrath ; he no longer 
doubted the existence of the Eternal Being, but ap- 
prehended that he was the unpardonable victim of 
his justice, and that having trifled with the workings 
of the Holy Spirit, he should find no place for repent- 
ance, though like Esau he sought it with tears. This 
so affected him, that a change in his appearance was 
remarked by his friends. In his distress he went to a 
clergyman of his acquaintance, from whom he found 
no relief ; nor could he extract from any source a heal- 
ing balm for his wounded conscience, nor discover a 
physician skilled to deal with such a case as his. 

The celebrated Mr. Fletcher,Tof Madeley, at that 
time tutor to two'neighbouring young gentlemen, his 
relations, was the person to whom at length his atten- 
tion was directed ; and he made his case known to him 
in a letter, without mentioning his name, requesting in 
urgent terms an interview that very night, at an inn 
in Shrewsbury. Though he had some miles to walk, 
Mr. Fletcher came, consoled him by advice, engaged 
with him in prayer, and left him in a state of compa- 
rative ease : nor was this the only occasion on which 
that remarkable man was the means of contributing to 
his spiritual comfort. A few years after, as is well 
known, Mr. Richard Hill thought it his duty to oppose 
the Arminian doctrines of his early religious guide : 
thus the soldiers of Christ often contend about the 
weapons of their warfare, instead of using them in the 
common cause of the Captain of their salvation. 

In 1758 Mr. Richard Hill returned to Oxford, to 



Relief of Mr. Richard HilVs mind. 



15 



attend the Vinerian Professor s Lectures on common 
law, not so much with a view to profit by them, as to 
have the opportunity of a retreat in his rooms in the 
college. On the occasion of a sacrament in the chapel, 
the preparation for the ordinance was so blessed to 
him as to operate to the great relief of his mind, which 
was now overpowered with an ecstatic joy in the Re- 
deemer. Certain books which he read, the preaching 
of Mr. Romaine, whose ministry he soon after attended 
in London, and intercourse with religious people, gave 
him great comfort ; but he soon discovered that real 
religion does not consist in a series of occasional im- 
pulses, and a succession of " frames and feelings," and 
relapsed in some degree into his former doubts. He 
was at length brought into a calm and peaceful state 
of mind, and religion became in him an abiding prin- 
ciple ; though, with every other Christian, he was sen- 
sible of that conflict between the flesh and spirit, which 
is the surest evidence of the knowledge of our own 
hearts, and of the work of grace in the soul. He ob- 
serves, " there are but two things the Spirit shews to 
the elect, stn and Lnrist, 

Beiiig Bimself thus deeply imbued with a sense of 
the love of God in Christ, and of the value and import- 
ance of religion, it v/as to be expected that Mr. Richard 
Hill should be earnest in his desire to be the instrument 
of awakening similar feelings in the minds of the mem- 
bers of his own family. It appears also, from some 
memoranda in his own writing, that the servants in his 
father's establishment, and the villagers around the 
house, were the constant objects of his pious solicitude 
and care. His eldest sister was happily his able and 
judicious assistant in this work ; and under their joint 
care and advice, the seed sown in young Rowland's 



IG His mhviety for his brother Rowland. 

mind sprung up and grew with a rapid increase. He 
seems to liave derived much benefit from reading the 
works of Archbishop Leighton, which his brother 
Richard sent to him at Eton, accompanied by a letter 
that contained an allusion to his entering the ministry, 
and concluded with this advice : " Be diligent in your 
studies. However human learning may prove a snare 
to such as are vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds, 
yet in a gracious heart it is very desirable ; and if it 
is your prayer and endeavour that whatsoever attain- 
ments you make in profane literature may be subser- 
vient to the nobler end of rendering you instrumental 
to the good of souls, and useful to the church of Christ, 
thei*e is no fear of your being hurt by those detestable 
maxims and principles, with which the most admired 
classical authors abound ; but rather will they be the 
means of discovering to you the blindness and depravity 
of human nature, and the necessity of seeking that 
only true wisdom that cometh from above, and without 
which all other wisdom will prove in the end only 
refined folly. And now, with my sincere prayers that 
if it be the will of God ever to call you to the work of 
the ministry, you may be fitted and prepared by his 
grace and Holy Spirit for that most important office, 
and by your steady attachment to our most excellent 
church, in a season wherein there is so dreadful a 
departure from the doctrines of her Homilies, Articles, 
and Common Prayer, may prove yourself a faithful 
labourer in the vineyard of our blessed Lord, I con- 
clude myself your most affectionate brother, both by 
nature and grace, Richard Hill." This letter was 
written in February, 1762 ; and there is one dated the 
following month, addressed to both his brothers, in 
which Mr. Richard Hill expresses great regret at not 



Rov:1and^s progress in religion. 



17 



being able to pay them a visit at Eton, but anticipates 
the enjoyment of much conversation on religious sub- 
jects at Hawkstone in the following summer ; and 
he sends back with it a little treatise, which it seems 
they had conveyed to him, called " Heavenly Paths." 

It was in young Rowland's mind, however, that 
grace took its deepest root, and whose progress in 
divine knowledge and experience seems to have given 
his pious and anxious brother the most unequivocal 
delight. In the midst of the carelessness and evil 
example of his schoolfellows, agitated by the wavering 
of his brother Robert's mind on the subjects which 
most interested himself, in the pursuit of the attain- 
ments of classical literature, and surrounded on all 
hands by sneers and ridicule, he was running, while 
yet a boy, his race of glory with an unequalled ardour. 
To his schoolfellows and to others he declared what 
God had done in his soul, and was made the instru- 
ment, even at that early period, of the conversion of 
some of them — the first-fruits of the rich harvest of 
success he reaped in his administrations in after life. 

He ever carefully preserved a letter written to him, 
when at Cambridge, by a youth to whom he had been 
made thus useful at Eton, and who pours out his soul 
with all the candid simplicity of boyish friendship, and 
with an expression of deep religious feeling which 
would have done credit to a riper age. The decided 
course of this young Christian had involved him in 
severe trials ; but in adversity, whether in youth or in 
after days, religion is the Christian's all, and then it is 
that its glory appears. 

It seems, from the letter of Rowland's young friend, 
that a religious society had been formed amongst the 
converts in this school, but that after his departure, 

c 



18 



Is made useful at Eton. 



the life which he communicated to it had been less 
vigorous. They were now on the eve of a revival, 
and had drawn up some rules and directions for their 
own guidance, the fifth of which is both interesting as 
the production of these pious boys, and intrinsically 
excellent. " Fifthly, let us take notice of the manner 
in which our time is spent, and of the strain which 
runs through our discourse. How often the former is 
lost in trifles — how often the latter evaporates in 
vanity ! Let us attend to the principles from which 
our actions flow; whether from the steady habitual 
love of God, or from some rambling impulse, and a 
customary propensity to please ourselves ? How fre- 
quently we neglect to glorify our Creator, to edify our 
fellow-creatures, and to improve ourselves in knowledge 
and holiness ! Let us observe the frame of our spirits 
in religious duties — with what reluctance they are 
undertaken, and with what indevotion they are per- 
formed, with how many wanderings of thought, and 
how much dullness of desire. How often in the 
common affairs of life we feel the inordinate sallies of 
passion, the workings of evil concupiscence, or the 
intrusion of foolish imaginations. Let us be careful to 
register those secret faults, which none but the all- 
seeing eye discerns. Often review these interesting 
memoirs. Let us frequently contemplate ourselves in 
this faithful mirror." After adverting to these rules, 
his young fellow Christian expresses, in the warmest 
manner, his everlasting obligations to his beloved 
Rowland for the pains he had taken with him, and 
earnestly requests an interest in his prayers. These 
were the first dawnings of his opening day of zealous 
and successful labours in the cause of his Redeemer. 
Towards the latter part of his time at Eton, he was 



Candour of his brother ; advice of Miss Hill. 19 

suiTouiidecl by a number of fellow Christians, old and 
young, some of whom had staggered him by their 
inconsistencies. His brother Richard, in a very long 
letter, dated Sept. 30th, 17^3, addresses him on this 
subject ; and assures him that " even they, who are 
really the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, 
have their spots, and do too often act greatly below 
the high dignity unto which they are called. Beware, 
therefore," he continues, " that you be not encouraged 
to go beyond your Christian liberty in any matter, 
because you see other Christians do so ; but whilst 
you copy their graces, be very careful not to be led 
aside by their falls and infirmities." Then he adds, 
with an excellent spirit of frankness and candour, " I 
am in a particular manner bound to repeat this caution 
to you with regard to myself, from a consciousness 
that my example before you has not been such as 
becometh the gospel ; but be assured that this reflec- 
tion affords me constant matter of humiliation, and 
that it is the earnest desire of my heart, to be daily 
more and more conformed to the image of Christ, and 
more and more meet to be a partaker of the inheritance 
among the saints in light." 

Favoured as young Rowland was at this time with 
the advice of such a brother, he was not less carefully 
watched by his truly pious sister Jane ; and in addition 
to the letters of Sir Richard Hill, before alluded to, he 
treasured up his deeply interesting correspondence with 
Miss Hill, while at school and at college, to the end of 
his life. In June, 1764, she wrote to announce to him 
that his going to Cambridge was determined on, and 
that Sir Rowland appeared to have no objections to 
his entering upon the sacred office of a minister of 
God's word. She tells him, " you are to be placed for 



20 



JV/?'. Rowland Hill at Cambridge. 



the first year under Dr. Brooke, to whom Sir Rowland 
has presented poor Moses's living, in Norfolk,^ and 
Mr. Frampton, who will continue your tutor. The 
Lord I trust will enable you to stand against all the 
fiery darts which will be shot at you at college. Fat 
bulls of Bashan will encompass you on every side, and 
you will need to be armed with the whole armour of 
God." This letter, after some very pious remarks, 
ends thus — " I cannot conclude without saying how 
glad we are to find, by Mr. Sleech's letter to my 
brother, that you are so diligent in your studies : con- 
tinue to be so, my dear Rowley, and if possible double 
your diligence, that you may be an ornament to the 
ministry, which is the prayer of your most affectionate 
sister, J. Hill." In all her correspondence with him, 
his sister strongly urged the necessity of diligence in 
his studies, observing that " human learning is a most 
desirable jewel in order to set off the lustre of those in 
a sanctified heart." 

In the month of October, 1764, after a previous 
visit to Hawkstone, where he met with many severe 
trials, the more felt as he had not the consolation of 
his sister's presence, on account of her being on a visit 
at Lord Dartmouth's, he entered upon his important 
career at Cambridge. An excellent letter from Miss 
Hill lamenting their not having met before his journey 
to the university, consoles him under the afflicting 
opposition he had suffered at home, and exhorts him 
to prepare for many troubles yet to come, and to 
" cleave only the more closely by faith to Jesus." 

It was the design of Sir Rowland, in sending his 
son to Cambridge, that he should, by applying to his 

V^here were six livings in Norfolk, all of considerable value, at that time in 
the gift of the Hill family, with this restriction, that they could be presehted only 
to fellows of St, John's College, Cambridge. <^ 



4^ 



cquainta^ice sought by Mr. Berridge. 21 



studies, obtain a fellowship at St. John's, and thus 
become qualified for presentation to one of the family 
livings in Norfolk ; an intention in which young 
Rowland acquiesced. He accordingly entered as a 
pensioner ; but subsequent events having determined 
him to alter his views, he became a fellow commoner, 
a class of young men not eligible to fellowships on 
account of their supposed rank and situation. 

Before he went into residence at Cambridge, Mr. 
Rowland Hill's religious sentiments were much disap- 
proved of by his family ; but happily a nobleman of 
piety, much respected at Hawkstone, defended his 
views and acted as a check to his opposers. He had 
scarcely entered the university, before he encountered 
the contempt he expected to find there ; and frequently 
said, when adverting to those days, that he was, 
merely on the account of his religion, such a marked 
and hated person, that nobody belonging to the college 
ever gave him a cordial smile, except the old shoe-black 
at the gate, who had the love of Christ in his heart. 
The report of his piety and zeal soon reached the ears 
of the well-known Mr. Berridge of Everton, who 
sought his acquaintance in the following note. 

Grandchester, Tuesday Morning, 
SIR, December I8ih, 1764. 

Mr. Thomas Palmer was at my house last 
week, and desired me to call upon you when I went 
to Cambridge. I am now at Grandchester, a mile 
from you, where I preached last night and this morn- 
ing, and where I shall abide till three in the afternoon 
— will you take a walk over ? The weather is frosty, 
which makes it pleasant under foot. The bearer of 
this is Mr. Matthews, who lives at Grandchester mill, 
at.w^ose house I as^. If you love Jesus Christ, you 




22 His acquaintance sought hy Mr. Berridge. 

will not be surprised at this freedom taken with you 
by a stranger, who seeks your acquaintance only out 
of his love to Christ and his people. I am, for his 
sake, your affectionate servant, 

John Berhidge. 

Thus to his great joy and comfort began his inter- 
course with Mr. Berridge, whose ministry he regu- 
larly attended, riding every Sunday from Cambridge 
to his church, whence he hastened back in time for the 
college chapel ; and seldom did it happen that any 
severity of weather prevented him from spending a 
portion of his Sabbath at Everton. He passed the 
Christmas of his first year at college, with his newly 
acquired friend and guide at Everton, and there met 
with many persons, not perhaps altogether the most 
judicious, whose views of religion were in unison with 
his own. Scarcely a week elapsed without intercourse 
with this excellent, but eccentric old clergyman, and 
he wrote in raptures to his sister of the happiness he 
enjoyed in his society and that of the fellow Christians 
he met with in his house. She replied to him in these 
terms : " we rejoice much at the happy Christmas you 
spent with Mr. B., as well as at the other opportu- 
nities you have of conversing with the dear children 
of God, whose experiences, discourse, and admonition, 
I trust you will find abundantly blessed to your soul, 
and that you will not fail to prosper amongst the trees 
of righteousness, and bring forth much fruit to the 
honour and glory of that God, who has called you out 
of darkness into his marvellous light, and made you to 
know and experience the felicity of his chosen — but 
my brother H. and myself both think it proper to give 
you a caution how you go too frequently to Mr. B., 



His frequent visits to Everton. 



23 



for should that be discovered, I need not tell you the 
storm it would raise." 

On whatever spot the two brothers Richard and 
Rowland appeared, there they enkindled the flame and 
shed the lustre of religion ; and at the same time their 
pious sister cast over her narrower sphere the gentle 
influence of a life dedicated to God, to which was 
added the rare appendage of a most humble spirit. 
To no one could we better apply the words of Jeremy 
Taylor ; " like a fair taper, when she shined to all the 
room, yet round about her own station she had cast a 
shadow and a cloud, and she shined to every body but 
herself." While Rowland was at Cambridge confess- 
ing Christ and despising the shame, his excellent 
brother and sister were engaged in the commendable 
work of endeavouring to awaken in the servants of 
their family, and amongst their neighbours, a sense of 
religion ; and their efforts to promote this all-important 
object formed frequently the subject of their corres- 
pondence. In a little book, preserved amongst the 
papers of Mr. Rowland Hill, there are frequent entries, 
in the handwriting of his brother Richard, of the 
happy deaths of their converts and friends. The fol- 
lowing is a specimen: "Feb. 6, 1766. This day, 
being Thm'sday, about a quarter past twelve at noon, 
my dear humble faithful servant Giles Archer sweetly 
fell asleep in Jesus. His disorder was a fever, which 
lasted exactly three weeks — The Lord enable me to 
follow him as he followed Christ." 

It is time, however, to return to the scenes in which 
Mr. Rowland Hill was personally engaged. His whole 
soul was bent on promoting the growth of piety in 
himself and others, and he was made the instrument 
of awakening an anxiety about eternal concerns in the 



24 Begins preaching at Cambridge, 

minds of some of his fellow-students. Amongst these 
were his friends Pentycross, Simpson, Robinson, and 
others, who were imbued with the same spirit of zeal, 
though they did not possess his fire, energy, and un- 
flinching boldness. But his assiduous efforts were not 
confined to the gownsmen of the university : — he visited 
the gaol, and the sick, and com^menced preaching in 
several places in Cambridge, and the adjacent villages. 
This unusual proceeding in an undergraduate brought 
down on him the severest censure from his college, 
and insults from the populace of the town ; the 
records of which still remain in his own handwriting, 
in a sort of irregular diary, which he heads, Parts 
of Scripture expounded at different places, what 
time, and what success." It begins with " Tuesday, 
Nov. 26, (1766) at Chesterton," on Matt, vii, 14, 
JEfiter in at the strait gate, &c. &c. ; there was much 
disturbance, but much less than was expected — some 
enlargement." A number of texts, with the names of 
places, follow this entry, without any remarks of par- 
ticular interest : he mentions, however, in one case, a 
vast concourse of people at the castle, and comfort to 
himself in addressing them. At length the opposition 
to the young preacher became very serious and 
decided ; and he wrote to consult the celebrated 
Mr. Whitefield. The advice he gave him will be seen 
in his answer. 

London^ Dec. 27, 1766. 

About thirty-four years ago, the master of Pem- 
broke college, where I was educated, took me to task 
for visiting the sick and going to the prisons — In my 
haste I said, " Sir, if it displeaseth you I will go no 
more :" my heart smote me immediately — I repented 



^ A village near Cambridge. 



First letter of Mr. Whitejield. 



25 



and went again — he heard of it — threatened — ^but for 
fear he should be looked upon as a persecutor, let me 
alone — the hearts of all are in the Redeemer's hands 
— I would not have you give way, no not for a mo- 
ment — the storm is too great to hold long — visiting 
the sick and imprisoned, and instructing the ignorant, 
are the very vitals of true and undefiled religion. If 
threatened, denied degree, or expelled for this, it will 
be the best degree you can take. A glorious prepara- 
tive for, and a blessed presage of future usefulness. 
I have seen the dreadful consequences of giving way 
and looking back. How many by this wretched cow- 
ardice and fear of the cross have been turned into 
pillars, not of useful, but of useless salt ! Felix quern 
faciunt aliena pericula cautum. Now is your time to 
prove the strength of Jesus yours. If opposition did 
not so much abound, your consolations would not so 
abound. Blind as he is, Satan sees some great good 
coming on. We never prospered so much at Oxford, 
as when we were hissed at and reproached as we 
walked along the street, as being counted the dung 
and oif-scouring of all things. That is a poor building 
that a little stinking breath of Satan's vassals can 
throw down. Your house I trust is better founded — 
Is it not built upon a rock? Is not that rock the 
blessed Jesus ? The gates of hell, therefore, shall not 
be able to prevail against it. Go on, therefore, my 
dear man, go on ; old Berridge, I believe, would give 
you the same advice ; you are honoured in sharing 
his reproach and name. God be praised that you are 
helped to bless when others blaspheme. (Do not drop 
the Bible and old books — you write good sense — 
nothing is wanting but to write it in a proper manner. 
Your friend Hallward is a good example to copy after.) 
God bless and direct and support you — he will, he will 



26 Extracts from Mr. Rowland HilVs diary. 



• — ^good Lady Huntingdon is in town- — she will rejoice 
to hear that you are under the cross — you will not 
want her prayers or the poor prayers of, my dear 
young honest friend. 

Yours, &c. &c. in an all-conquering Jesus, 

G. W. 

To Mr. Rowland HUl, 

at St. John's College, Cambridge. 

This advice, though scarcely consistent with the 
submission he had promised as an undergraduate, but 
so much in unison with his own desires, was quite 
sufficient to determine him to defy all resistance from 
whatever quarter ; and soon after the receipt of Mr. 
Whitefield's letter is the following entry in his diary : 
1767, Jan. 1, Thursday, at Chesterton, on John i, 
25, 26, on the power of Christ's resurrection ; we had 
the honour of a mob, no other harm was done than 
the windows broke." " Sunday, Jan. 4, at the castle, 
on Genesis iii — on the fall — and a little mobbing." 
" Thursday, J an. 8, on Psalm Ixii, 1 2, Comfortable 
time at Painter's, on the life of faith." He preached 
four times this week, which he notices, and then con- 
tinues. " Sunday, at castle, Jan. 18, on 1 Cor. xv, 22, 
on death. I saw this day the dead corpse of Mary 
Gilby, when I came to visit her." "Wednesday, Jan. 21, 
at castle, on Gen. xxxii, 26, on earnest prayer, / will 
not let thee go except thou hless me, Thursday, 
Jan. 22, at Grandchester, on Psalm xxvi, 12, on Sion's 
captivity. I had a very bad walk both there and back 
again. My body was so fatigued, that I had not much 
power to speak. Father, thy will be done." Such 
varied remarks as the following occur in his hand- 
writing, in reference to different occasions on which 
he preached and expounded — " many were drunk ; I 
was confused" — " the people were still, and a tolerable 



His perseverance in preaching. 



27 



number" — "no mobbing, but very much abused in 
my way there" — " to a number of dissenters. I hope 
the Lord kept me from trimming." Thursday, at 
castle, on 1 Cor. v, 10, ' We must all appear before 
the judgment-seat of Christ' Two prisoners were 
condemned to death at the assizes the day before ; the 
Lord enabled me to use terror, with some power and 
love" — "the people were inclined to mob, but were 
overawed by the word" — "in a barn for the first time, 
with much comfort. God send, if I am to live, this 
may not be my last barn — sweet to rejoice any where, 
though in a barn." " Some gownsmen were there, but 
were permitted to do no more than gnash with their 
teeth." "Sunday, May 10 (1767), 1 Cor, ix, 24, 'So 
run that ye maij obtain' For Newmarket races — 
many people there. I was a little confused, but I 
heard it was blessed — what cannot God do ? " 

Not only were all the energies of Mr. Rowland 
Hill's own mind at this period directed to the object of 
preaching Christ, but he had been the means also of 
communicating to some of his fellow students and 
others a portion of his ardent zeal. They had formed 
a little society, of which he was the leader ; and he 
urged them on in pursuit of the one end they had in 
view, through all the barriers that were cast before 
them. He was assailed on every side. His father 
and mother were decidedly opposed to his career, and 
his superiors in the university condemned, in the 
strongest terms, his infringements of discipline. Hints 
of a refusal of testimonials, and even degree, were held 
out as the probable result of his irregularities, but in 
vain. To preach Christ he was resolved ; and it was 
not his natural disposition to yield to any intimidating 
menaces, nor could he see, that, by his present depar- 
ture from the regulations of the university, he was 



28 Second letter of Mr. Whitefield. 

throwing any obstacle in the way of his future useful- 
ness. The stigmas and censures cast on him he con- 
sidered as honours of the highest order ; and expulsion, 
or refusal of any university privilege, would only have 
driven him at once to other scenes of labour, and not 
to desponding silence and obscure repose. Besides the 
inclination of his own zealous and fervent disposition, 
he was under the influence of a master spirit of no 
ordinary mould : he was encouraged in his course, 
whenever difficulties appeared before him, by the stir- 
ring letters of Whitefield, of which the following is an 
example. 

MY DEAR PROFESSOR, Haverfordwest, June 4, 1767. 

I wish you joy of the late high dignity con- 
ferred upon you — higher than if you were made the 
greatest professor in the university of Cambridge. The 
honourable degrees you intend giving to your pro- 
mising candidates, I trust will excite an holy ambition, 
and an holy emulation — let me know who is first 
honoured.^ As I have been admitted to the degree of 
doctor for near these thirty years, I assure you I like 
my field preferment, my airy pluralities, exceeding 
well. For these three weeks last past I have been 
beating up for fresh recruits* in Gloucestershire and 
South Wales. Thousands and thousands attended, 

^ By preaching in any of the various places which Mr. Rowland Hill visited for 
that purpose. 

Mr. Whitefield, however, had so often been deceived by his " recruits,'* that 
he had become very cautious as to receiving them; and without either something 
striking in their replies to his questions, or in their appearance, or a strong recom- 
mendation, they were not easily received by him. His friend Cornelius Winter 
tells us that he dismissed a tailor with, " go to Rag fair and buy old clothes " — nor 
did he readily take any person into his confidence. The late celebrated Robert 
Hall was often obliged to act in the same way, and once said to a shoemaker, who 
would fain have become a minister by his influence, and urged on him as an argu- 
ment, that he ought not to keep his talents concealed in a napkin — " the smallest 
pocket handkerchief you have will do, Sir." I recollect telling this story to 
i\Ir. Rowland Hill, who laughed heartily, and replied, " I remember when — — 
came to me, and talked about not hiding his talents, I could not help telling him, 
that, for my part, I thought the closer he hid them the better." 



Second letter of Mr. Whitejield. 



29 



and good Lady Huntingdon was present at one of our 
reviews — her ladyship's aid-de-camp preached in Breck- 
nock-street, and captain Scott, that glorious field officer, 
lately fixed up his standard upon dear Mr. Fletcher s 
horseblock, at Madeley. Being invited thither, I have 
a great inclination to lift up the Redeemer's ensign 
next week, in the same place — with what success you 
and your dearly beloved candidates for good old 
methodistical contempt shall know hereafter. God 
willing, I intend fighting my way up to town. Soon 
after my arrival thither, I hope thousands and thou- 
sands of vollies of prayers, energetic, effectual, fer- 
vent, heaven-besieging, heaven-opening, heaving-taking 
prayers, shall be poured forth for you all. Oh, my 
dearly beloved and longed for in the Lord, my bowels 
yearn towards you. Fear not to go without the camp 
— keep open the correspondence between the two uni- 
versities. Remember the praying legions — they were 
never known to yield — God bless those that are gone 
to their respective cures, I say not livings — a term 
of too modern date — Christ is our life — Christ is the 
Levite's inheritance, and Christ will be the true dis- 
interested Levite's lot and portion and all. Greet your 
dear young companions whom I saw — they are welcome 
to write when they please. God be your physician 
under your bodily malady ! A thorn — a thorn — but 
Christ's grace will be sufficient for you. To his 
tender never-failing mercy I commit you as being for 
his great blessed name's sake, my dear professor. 

Yours, &C.&C. G.W. 

P.S. I am sorry it hath so turned out about the 
letter — but you shall have it when I reach London. 

To Mr. Rowland Hill, at St. John's College, Catn bridge. 



30 Continuance of Mr. Rowland HilVs labours. 

On the Sunday after this letter was written, 
Mr. Rowland Hill preached at the castle at Cambridge, 
but describes himself as rather confused, a feeling which 
probably arose from his bodily ailment. On the 
Tuesday following he spoke at Chesterton, on the 
gospel being revealed to babes, " with some power, 
and to many people," adding this prayer, " Lord bless 
it, then shall I know that I do thy will." He seems, 
at this early period of his ministerial labours, to have 
been always much cast down by a small attendance, a 
discouragement he seldom experienced either then or 
in his maturer life, but which, whenever it did happen, 
seemed to deprive him of all energy. He remarks in 
the entry immediately following the one last quoted — 
" a poor poor congregation : Lord, what are we come 
to ? Lord, help " — -this was at the castle, where he 
preached the following Sunday, on receiving the adop- 
tion of sons, to " many people, but not much affected." 
This appears to have been his last opportunity but two 
of speaking at the castle ; for, after mentioning two 
other texts on which he had preached there, he describes 
the door to the prisoners as shut against him. 

Just at this time he received a visit in college from 
two pious natives of Denmark, who had been with his 
brother Richard at Hawkstone, and who brought a 
letter of introduction from Mr. Whitefield. A portion 
of their diary, during their stay in England, contains 
an account of this interview, and is written with great 
piety and simplicity, as will be seen from the following 
extract." " The 16th of June (1767) we arrived at 
Cambridge— in the Crown Inn, at Mr. Cowling. The 
17th we went to Mr. Rowland Hill, of John's College, 

5 I give this extract exactly as it is found in the paper containing it, which was 
preserved by Mr. Rowland Hill. 



Is visited by two pious Danes. 



31 



showing our letter of introduction from Mr. Whitefield. 
We spent almost the whole day with him in his edify- 
ing company — he told us much blessed news of the 
kingdom of our dear Saviour, viz. that there were at 
Cambridge seven awakened and Jesus-loving students, 
one little girl from ten, one boy from thirteen years, 
and several married and unmarried people. His Bible 
and prayer were his only study, &c.^ — -and, after our 
friend having prayed fervently with us, we departed 
from Cambridge the 18th of June, for Newmarket, 
Afterwards we came again the 25th of ditto, to Cam- 
bridge, where we spent a blissful evening with our 
dear Mr. Hill. The 26th June he conducted us to a 
pious friend, Mr. Matthew, at Grandchester, where we 
met with the revered Mr. Berridge, at Everton, and 
in the evening setted off for Nottingham. The 3rd 
of July we arrived in the Angel Inn, at Mr. Kamp, 
in Oxford, and to our joy found there our dear 
Mr. Rowland Hill, from Cambridge, who brought us 
to Mr. Jones of Edmund Hall, where we met with 
nine pious students, amongst whom were 

Mr. Hallward of Worcester 

Foster of Queen's 

Pew of Hertford 

Gurden of Magdalen 

Clark of St John's 
Kay and Grove of Edmund Hall's^ 

Spending the following day with these dear brethren, 
and left Oxford on the 5th July." 

At the beginning of this month, Mr. Rowland Hill 
left the university for the long vacation, and was on 

^ As will be soon seen, Mr. Rowland Hill did not neglect his college studies, and 
no man set a more proper estimate on the value of learning. 
7 Two of the expelled in 1768. 



College. 



32 



Long vacation of\^&]. 



his way home, when he met these pious foreigners at 
Oxford ; but before his departure, he preached with 
reference to his intended absence, on two occasions, to 
which he thus alludes — " Lord's day at Painter's, on 
last chapter of 2 Cor., The grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, Sec. — my parting sermon, I was but dead." 
" Monday, June 30, at Chesterton, to many people, 
with much comfort, on John vi, 68, Lord, whither shall 
we go, thou hast the words of eternal life ? Many 
tears — a dismal parting." 

When he wrote these last words his mind must have 
been deeply affected both by the sympathies of those 
he was leaving at Cambridge, and by the prospects 
awaiting him at home, which was about to be to him 
a mingled scene of cloud and sunshine. The latter he 
enjoyed in the cordial welcome of his sister, and elder 
brother, who had lately become a village preacher, and 
a visiter of prisons like himself ; but the displeasure 
of his parents cast a gloom over his soul ; and he used 
often to speak of his sorrowful walks amidst the beau- 
tiful scenery of his father's grounds, and of the frowns 
which pierced to the very core of his tender and affec- 
tionate heart. But he was encouraged in his own 
career, and congratulated on his brother's activity, by 
his " much honoured Mr. Whitefield," who addressed 
him in his peculiar and energetic style of expression. 

MY DEAR PROFESSOR, London, July 14, 1767. 

What said our Lord to Martha? Did I 
not say unto thee, if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst 
see the glory of God ? Blessed, for ever blessed, be 
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for 
what he hath done for your dear brother. A preaching, 
prison-preaching, field-preaching, Esq. strikes more than 



Third letter of Mr. Whitefield. 33 

all the black gowns and lawn sleeves in the world. 
And, if I am not mistaken, the great Shepherd and 
Bishop of souls will let the world, and his own 
children too, know that he will not be prescribed to, 
in respect to men, or garbs, or places, much less will 
he be confined to any order, or set of men under 
heaven. ' I wish you both much, very much, prosperity. 
You will have it, you will have it — this is the way, 
walk in it. Both tabernacle and chapel pulpits shall 
be open to a captain or an esquire sent of God. The 
good news from Oxford is encouraging. Say what 
they will, preaching should be one part of the education 
of a student in divinity — Usus pi^nptos facit. Dear 
Pen ty cross and the friends you introduced with one 
Mr. Atkinson were with me three hours on Saturday 
last. I hope it was not lost time. Write often and 
let me know how you go on. What says your friend, 
dear Mr. Powis ? God bless him and help him to go 
forwards—dear Esq. Hill— I pray for you night and 
day. Miss Gode is gone off triumphantly, and also 
another of Brighthelmstone flock — Hallelujah — come, 
Lord, come. Ever yours, &c. 

G. W. 

When at home, Mr. Rowland Hill preached wher- 
ever he could collect a congregation. His first entry 
in his memoranda, written at the time, is— -"Wednes- 
day, July 7 — beginning at Jerusalem — Lower Heath, 
(a part of his father's estate) to many people. I had 
some power given me, but I thought they were very 
unaffected." Again; "Saturday, at Marchamly (a vil- 
lage near Hawkstone) from Matt, xviii, 3, Except ye 
he converted, &c. Much straitened on account of bash- 
fulness in speaking before my dear brother." During 

D 



34 Fourth letter of Mr. Whitefield, 

the whole of this visit to his family, he never lost an 
opportunity of proclaiming his Saviour, but deeply 
lamented that he could so seldom find one. He had, 
however, the joy of seeing his brother Brian added to 
those of his own kindred who were already his fellow- 
believers in Christ Jesus, on which he was congratu- 
lated by Mr. Whitefield in terms too characteristic of 
that extraordinary man not to be inserted here. 

MY DEAR PROFESSOR, London, August 8, 1767. 

I have been sadly hindered from answering 
your last letter delivered me by your brother. I gave 
it him to read, and we had, I trust, a profitable confer- 
ence. God be praised if another of your brothers is 
gained. What grace is this! Four or five out of one 
family — it is scarcely to be paralleled. Who knows 
but the root as well as the branches may be taken by 
and by: Abba, Father, all things are possible with thee. 
Steadiness and perseverance in the children, will be one 
of the best means, under God, of convincing the parents. 
Their present opposition I think cannot last very long; 
if it does, to obey God rather than man, when forbidden 
to do what is undoubted duty, is the invariable rule. 
Our dear Penty is under the cross at Cambridge. But 
crescit suh ponder e— 

Satan thwarts and men object ; 
Yet the thing they thwart, effect. 

I should be glad if any one's exhibition^ was taken 

^ A college friend, to whom Mr. Rowland Hill was much attached, having been 
the means of his conversion, wrote him word that he had been threatened in this 
way. He says, " the sum of their determination concerning me may be comprised 
in these few words— that I immediately return to college, and that unless they 
receive a letter of my recanting my present principles, which they (who know not 
what they say, nor whereof they affirm) declare are contrary to the doctrines of the 
Christian church, I am to have no further benefit from them, and my exhibition of 
thirty pounds per year to be withdrawn. Oh ! that I had thirty thousand to give 
up for Jesu's sake." He adds, " I have been with Mr. Romaine frequently of 
late, blessed be God for it." 



Mr. Roirla^id HilPa depression. 



35 



from liim for visiting the sick, &c. It would vastly 
tend to the furtherance of the gospel; but Satan sees 
too far, I imagine, to play such a game now. Let him 
do his work — he is only a mastiff" chained. Continue 
to inform me how he barks, and how far he is per- 
mitted to go in your parts; and God's people shall be 
more and more stirred up to pray for you all, by, my 
dear professor. 

Yours, &c. &c. 

In our all-conquering Emmanuel, 

G. W. 

To Mr- Rowland Hill, at Hawkstone, Shropshire. 

Mr. Rowland Hill's acute sensibility to the opposi- 
tion of his parents, and the hindrances which were cast 
in the way of his exertions, seem very much to have 
weakened the spring of his elastic mind. This is 
evident from the language of his diary — " Saturday, 
Sept. 5 (1767), at Marchamly, on Gal. ii, 20, 21, on 
living by faith in Christ. The three last times I have 
spoken, I have found but little comfort, occasioned by 
my speaking so seldom. God forbid that the little hair 
on my head may not all be shorn off"." On almost 
every succeeding occasion too, at this period, his re- 
mark is, " but little comfort." On Tuesday, October 
12th, just before his return to Cambridge, he thus 
registers his farewell: "At Marchamly, Heb. ii, 30, 
How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ? 
The last time — the people are very dead. Was enabled 
to say many sharp things to rouse them. What I have 
spoke I have spoke faithfully through grace assisting. 
O that I had spoke oftener. Lord, put thy seal to 
thine own word, and pardon what was mine." On the 
2 1st of the same month he took his departure for the 
university, having first commended to God in prayer 

D 2 



36 



His return to Cambridge. 



those of whom he was now about to take leave. This 
is noticed in a letter of his sister to her friend Lady 
Glenorchy, dated Oct. 20, 1767, in which she says — 
'^We have just had a parting prayer with my dear 
brother Rowland, who leaves us to-morrow. He pro- 
poses to see good Lady Huntingdon in his way to 
Cambridge, which I trust will be blessed to him, and 
that he will ever stand faithful in the cause of his cruci- 
fied Master, whether he be admitted as a minister of 
the Gospel, to preach in his name or not ; but alas ! my 
dear friend, to such a deplorable apostacy is the world 
come, that young men who are steadfastly attached to 
the church, and live exemplary lives, can hardly get 
their testimonials signed for orders." On his way to 
Cambridge, he preached at a Mrs. Lay ton's of Bath, 
Saturday, Oct. 24th, but was, as he says, " rather 
dashed at the audience — Lord for boldness — a little 
assistance from above." This he repeated with " not 
much comfort or perspicuity." He observes " I do 
not love to speak to fine people." He preached, how- 
ever, in Lady Huntingdon's chapel, and expounded in 
her house " with much comfort." 

The instant he arrived at Cambridge he began 
preaching. He thus describes his first meeting of his 
friends and followers there — " the people were much in 
tears at seeing me. Lord, keep them and me. A little 
comfort. Always find more comfort in speaking to 
my own people than any where else." His feelings 
during this term at college, seem to have varied ex- 
ceedingly. On one occasion, a Sunday, he writes — 
" much comfort and stirring — laudate Deumr On 
another, the following Wednesday — " distressed at the 
smallness of the congregation, so that I had not any 
liberty. Lord, where is the word that was sown on 



Religious meetings at Oaford in 1^68. 37 

Sunday eve ! Cast thy bread upon the waters, aiid thou 
shalt find it after many daysT Of a subsequent ser- 
mon he says, " I doubt too much in my own spirit;" 
and he closed the year 1767, and commenced the fol- 
lowing, with this prayer, " Lord, grant us a deal of 
blessed preaching this next year." He prayed also, in 
a truly Christian spirit, for grace to act with forbear- 
ance towards the gownsmen who ridiculed him ; and 
remarks, in reference to the presence of some of them 
when he was addressing the people, " the Lord would 
not let me trim, blessed be his name." 

Not only was Mr. Rowland Hill actively engaged at 
this time with the flock he had collected at Cambridge, 
but he maintained a constant correspondence with those 
undergraduates and others at Oxford, who professed 
sentiments in unison with his, and were employed in 
somewhat similar scenes of religious exercise. His 
principal correspondent was his friend Mr. Hall ward, 
of Worcester college, who wrote him word of the great 
stir their proceedings were making in the university, 
and of the outcry raised both by " gown and town." 
Little, however, did he anticipate that the opposition 
made to these young men would end, as it did, on 
March 11, 1768, in the expulsion of six students from 
St. Edmund's Hall. In the previous autumn, Mr. Hall- 
ward informed him of meetings which took place in 
the house of a Mrs. Durb ridge, the widow of a humble, 
but eminently pious friend of Mr. Whitefield, of whose 
triumphant death Mr. Rowland Hill had some time 
before received an animating account from the pen of 
the same correspondent, who reports him to have said, 
when the languor of disease prevented his holding 
much intercourse with those who visited him, the 
still voice of Jesus to my soul is sweeter than any other 



38 



Proceedings against six students. 



conversation whatever." It was in this house that 
their assemblies for prayer and exhortation were chiefly 
carried on, till at length discovery was made of their 
meetings, from which, when known, they " thought it 
cowardly to desist," thongh they heard " of loss of 
character, degrees, orders, and even expulsion itself." 
Mr. Rowland Hill was assured by his friend Hall ward 
that they were unmoved by these things, and that, for 
his own part, he was his pupil, and could declare, with 
sincerity, that he considered it " a happiness and privi- 
lege to be counted worthy to suffer reproach for Jesu's 
sake with the little flock" in Oxford, where, he says in 
another letter, " the lion has roared, though I think he 
has had but little real cause hitherto. God grant he 
may for the future have more." 

At length the storm which had been long gathering, 
and gave a few warnings of its future violence, poured 
the full torrent of its vengeance upon six students of 
St. Edmund's Hall. Their names were, Benjamin 
Kay, Jam.es Matthews, Thomas Jones, Thomas Grove, 
Erasmus Middleton, Joseph Shipman, who, on the 
complaint of Mr. Higson, their tutor, and contrary to 
the inclination of Dr. Dixon, the principal of the col- 
lege, were summoned before the vice-chancellor and his 
assessors, for preaching and expounding doctrines con- 
trary to those of the church of England, and frequent- 
ing illicit conventicles. The result of this inquiry 
was, as has been before stated, their expulsion — an 
act which was soon followed by a letter addressed to 
Dr. Durell, the vice-chancellor, from Mr. Whitefield, and 
by a pamphlet entitled Pietas Oxoniensis from the 
pen of Mr. Richard Hill, dedicated to the Earl of 
Lichfield, then chancellor of the university of Oxford. 
This pamphlet was ansv/ered by Dr. Noweil, principal 



I'heir accusation and defence. 



39 



of St. Mary's Hall, and public orator, who gives the 
articles of accusation, and his own notes of the evi- 
dence, and maintains that Mr. Higson deserved the 
thanks given him by the vice-chancellor, and that the 
sentence of expulsion was just. On the thanks to 
INIr. Higson, Whitefield remarks, 

" Pudet haec opprobria nobis 
Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli. 

What thanks, reverend sir, he may meet with from 
the whole university I know not ; but one thing I 
know, namely, that he will receive no thanks for that - 
day's work from the innumerable company of angels, 
the general assembly of the first-born which are writ- 
ten in heaven, or from God, the judge of all, in that 
day when Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, 
shall come in his own glory, in the glory of the father, 
and his holy angels, and gather his elect from all the 
four corners of the world." — Mr. Higson it seems was 
subject to insanity, and had been under restrictions, 
and therefore when he went to Dr. Dixon with the 
charge — " that there w^ere several enthusiasts in their 
society who talked of regeneration, inspiration, and 
drawing nigh unto God," he treated it as the effect of 
excitement in a disordered mind, especially as the 
young men in question had lived most exemplary lives, 
and had conducted themselves in an orderly manner 
in the college. The tutor, however, dissatisfied with 
the disposition of the head of the college towards the 
young men, applied to the vice-chancellor as visitor, 
who appointed certain assessors and a day for hearing 
the accusations against them, and they were cited to 
this court by a notice on the door of the hall chapel. 
It appears that Dr. Dixon, the principal of the hall, 
defended their doctrines from the articles of the esta- 
blished church, and praised, in the highest terms, the 



40 Their cause espoused by Mr. Richard Hill, 

exemplar iness of their lives ; and others considered 
that if by a well meant zeal they had fallen into any 
imprudences, an admonition was the most their con- 
duct required. The charges against them were cer- 
tainly a most singular medley. Some of them were 
accused of being of low origin, others of being illiterate, 
of being reputed methodists, and of being connected 
with Messrs. Venn, Newton, and Fletcher, clergymen 
of the same principles ; and it was insinuated that they 
only came to Oxford for the purpose of " skulking into 
orders." Part of the testimony produced on the occa- 
sion, was a letter to the tutor from a gentleman, as- 
suring him that Thomas Jones had made a very good 
periwig for him only two years before, when employed 
in the trade of a barber ; and hence it was argued that 
he could not be a fit person to continue, especially after 
his irregularity in praying and expounding the scrip- 
tures, in a seat of learning like Oxford. It was more- 
over considered a happy circumstance that the views of 
the methodistical leaders of the day of " filling the 
church with their votaries, had, by this seasonable 
interposition, been disappointed." These last words 
are those of Dr. Nowell in his reply to the pamphlet 
entitled Pietas Oxoniensis, which was soon fol- 
lowed by another from the pen of its author, 
Mr. Richard Hill, called " Goliath slain, being a reply 
to the Rev. Dr. NowelFs answer to Pietas Oxoniensis, 
wherein the false glosses of that gentleman's pamphlet 
are removed, his great misrepresentation detected, the 
ancient doctrines of the reformation and of the church 
of England defended, and the sentence against the ex- 
pelled young men proved, from his own words, to be 
far m_ore severe, arbitrary, and illegal, than it hath 
hitherto been represented." The intimate connection 



Mr. Rowland Hill continues his e.vertions. 41 



of his brother Rowland with these zealous young men 
was, in a great measure, the reason of the very pro- 
minent part taken by Mr. Richard Hill in this contro- 
versy which was carried on for some time with great 
vehemence in various letters, in the " Shaver's sermon" 
so called, and in the newspapers of the day. There 
can be no question that their preaching and expounding 
while in statu pupillari, was an infringement, by these 
young men, of the letter of the university statutes ; but 
it was shrewdly observed by one of the heads of houses 
present on their trial, " that as these six gentlemen 
were expelled for having too much religion, it would 
be very proper to inquire into the conduct of some who 
had too little," and whose pursuits, if visited according 
to the same regulations, would have subjected them 
to a similar infliction. But the doctrines they pro- 
mulgated formed the chief subject of their judges' dis- 
pleasure ; and the zealous clergymen, Venn, Newton, 
Fletcher, and others, whom they followed, were at that 
time accused of holding tenets opposed to those of the 
church to which they belonged. Time, however, has 
done justice to their piety and merits,^ and the church 
of England is daily adding to the number of her zealous 
and active ministers, men who consider their doctrines 
not at variance with her liturgy and articles, and who, 
without any infringement of her rules, are preaching- 
salvation through faith alone in a crucified Redeemer, 
and whose works are an answer to those who insinuate 
that they lay no stress on them as evidences of their 
belief. 

The subject of the expulsion of these young men 

9 Of Fletcher, Southey, whom nobody will suspect of lack of affection for the 
church, says — "no age or country has ever produced a man of more fervent 
piety, or more perfect charity; no church has ever possessed a more apostolic 
minister." 



42 



LeMer to Mr. Wliitefidd. 



from Oxford has been alluded to here on account of 
the very intimate connection which subsisted between 
Mr. Rowland Hill and the little company of which 
they were a part, who entered into his views, and who 
followed his example at that university ; and because 
of the perseverance and determination with which the 
late Sir Richard Hill defended their principles. As 
may be imagined, this event deeply affected the former; 
and although his Alma Mater proceeded not to such 
lengths of severity, he met with his share of difficulties 
and opposition. There were also those of the same 
religious sentiments as his own, who considered his 
irregular course as not the best preparative for his 
degree or future ministry. He never did, however, 
from the first impulse he received, nor would his 
nature permit it, move in any defined and settled orbit. 
He was moreover encouraged in his proceedings by 
the advice of many of his friends, who told him they 
were " glad to hear the kingdom of Christ grew so 
formidable at Cambridge as to make the adversary 
think it worth while to oppose." His situation there, 
and feelings at this period, are thus described by him- 
self in a letter to his friend Mr. Whitefield, in which 
he alludes to some of the publications just referred to 
on the Oxford expulsion. 

REV. AND VERY DEAR SIR, Cambridge, May 12, 1768. 

I am glad to hear we are to expect a smaller 
edition of your valuable letter, I doubt not but it will 
[be] of further utility. It has been read much in this 
place : that and the Shaver have long been sent for to 
all the coffee-hovises in this university, so that I doubt 
not but all our heads have seen all that has been 
written; but if you think it any advantage to send 



Letter to Mr. Wkitejield. 43 



each of our heads a separate copy for themselves, I 
would contrive my best to get it done. 

God be praised for what is doing by the endeavours 
of dear Lady Huntingdon at Tunbridge Wells. How 
wonderfully is she carried from one place of dissipa- 
tion to another ! how glorious is her continued progress ! 

Blessed be God, we are not without being steeped 
more than ever in shame in this place, or, as the old 
proverb goes, we have eaten shame and drank after it, 
and I trust it digests well. Though we always endea- 
vour to keep clear of a mob, in letting no more know 
than our different houses will hold, yet in spite of all 
that can be done, more or less of the gown constantly 
attend. The Lord, through much grace, generally 
keeping me clear of the fear of man, gives me some 
little strength to tell you all about it ; and as I find burs 
generally stick faster to people's clothes than roses, I 
am sometimes apt to deal in that rough ware. They 
have hitherto always stood like poor brow-beaten 
things with much attention till we have done, when 
they generally get together to compare notes, which 
they afterwards retail among others of the university, 
drest up in a droll fashion, well embellished with the 
addition of many ludicrous lies. This makes all as I 
pass the streets stop to wonder at me as a strange oddity; 
but as I am more than ever convinced that the only 
way God ever has, and ever will carry on his work, is 
by the manifestation of his own Almighty power, 
without any of our assisting influence or trimming, I 
find the only way to meet with a blessing is to be honest 
and open in telling them the simple truth, and leaving 
God to bless it. This, I trust, has in some measure 
been the case at Cambridge. Four of the many gowns- 
men that have been at times my hearers of late, have 



44 



Letter to Mr, Whitefeld. 



never missed an opportunity of attending, and have 
been at much pains to inquire the time and place of 
our meeting. After hearing, they wish me a good eve ; 
and when absent, speak respectfully of the word. 
Many others, too, having been convinced in their judg- 
ments, approve of its being right, while others, filled 
with the hottest madness, dress me up as a fool, and 
cudgel me as a knave. The other night, the mob of 
the gown, which raised a second of the town, ran so 
high at the house where we had a meeting, that the 
constable, who is a friend, was forced to attend, that 
no riot might ensue ; but as I thought to be attended 
with constables was yet too high an honour for such a 
poor beginner, I hope it was nothing more than what 
Christian prudence would advise, to be more private 
the next time, and be contented with a house full, 
attended only with a few gownsmen by way of bringing 
up the rear. 

As for our doctors, 'tis remarkable how very patiently 
they bear with my conduct, as they now know that as 
I have but a little while to stay, an expulsion from 
Cambridge would hardly answer. They seem now to 
have come to the following compromise — that I am to 
continue to be possessor of my professorship, and to be 
still bishop over all their parishes, provided I will be 
contented with houses or barns, and leave them alone 
with quiet possession of their streets, fields, and 
churches, and by and bye they will be glad to sign my 
testimonium, in order to get rid of me. Thus in the 
end I hope, through grace, I shall be enabled to make 
good what I promised to one who asked me when we 
enthusiasts intended to stop ? — my answer was, " not 
at all till such time as we have carried all before us," 

I am in the greatest hopes that the Lord will soon 



His skill in athletic exercises. 



45 



give dear a heart to help me ; he is a steady, 

warm, lively Christian, and grows prodigiously, and 
bids by far the fairest for the predicted phoenix of any 
that are in this place. 

Do continue to be earnest to God for us. I want 
much humbling : spiritual pride at present is my grand 
temptation. 

Having not any spare time, I am forced to write 
thus in haste, and conclude with subscribing myself. 
Your poorest son and servant for Christ's sake, 

Rd. Hill. 

* The Rev. Mr. Whitefield, at Tottenham Court Chapel, London. 

He had, in a most extraordinary degree, the power 
of attracting and retaining the regard of those whose 
minds were at all disposed to religion ; an instance of 
which appears in the following extract from a letter 
written by one of his young fellow-labourers : — " My 
dear Rowly, may the Lord prosper you in every thing 
you undertake. Although I know you so little per- 
sonally, I find my heart more drawn out to you than 
almost to any one I know." It is evident from the 
correspondence of his early associates, that there never 
was a leader more zealously followed or more cordially 
beloved than Mr, Rowland Hill during his residence at 
Cambridge. Religion never could be accused of gloom 
as respected him at any period of his life ; and when 
at school and at college, he was exceeded by no person, 
but his brother Robert, in every species of athletic 
exercise. He was an exceedingly bold and intrepid 
rider and in the exercises of skating and swimming 
he has probably never been much excelled by any per- 

* This truly characteristic letter has been kindly confided to me, since the pub- 
lication of the first edition of this work, by the Rev. Isaac Saunders. 



46 



His diligence in his studies. 



soil. He once swam from Cambridge to Grandcliester, 
a distance of two miles, against the stream ; and it is 
not many years ago since a person who walked by the 
side of the river at the time reminded him of the fact. 

During the year 1768 Mr. Rowland Hill was dili- 
gent in his studies preparatory to his degree of B.A., 
to which he proceeded a twelvemonth later from his 
first going to college than is usual, having, to use the 
technical language of the university, degraded^ or post- 
poned his examination for a year. His tutor, Pearce, 
of St. Johns, was a person of much learning and emi- 
nence, having been in the year 1767 third wrangler 
and second medalist. He was afterwards public orator, 
master of Jesus college, master of the Temple, and dean 
of Ely. Mr. Pearce was not much older than his 
pupil. They had occasional communications in after 
life, and entertained for each other a sincere mutual 
esteem ; and it is this connection which accounts for 
Mr. Rowland Hill's having been frequently permitted 
to preach in the Temple church before the order of the 
bishop of London for his exclusion from the pulpits in 
his diocese. Considering the activity with which he 
kept up his communications with his religious friends 
and followers at Cambridge, and in its neighbourhood, 
it is extraordinary that he could find time for any 
serious application for his approaching examination ; 
but he was naturally fond of certain subjects of ma- 
thematical science, particularly optics, hydrostatics, 
mechanics, and astronomy, of the principles of which 
he acquired, with the able assistance of his tutor, a 
fair general knowledge, and the popular parts of them 
frequently engaged his attention, and seemed greatly 
to interest him during his whole life. He was by no 
means unmoved by the charms of rational enjoyments; 



lakes his degree in 1769. ^^ 

but the object to which his whole soul was attracted 
was " the one thing needful," to which his attention, 
if at any time diverted from it, was always prepared in 
an instant to return. 

In January, 1769, Mr. Rowland Hill proceeded to 
his degree of B.A., when his name appeared in the list 
of honours, an unusual thing for a fellow commoner in 
those days, although latterly the members of some of 
the most distinguished families in the kingdom have 
passed with the highest success, through a course of 
study requiring no common industry and talent, and of 
the extent and difficulties of which those who lived in 
the last century had not the remotest idea. 

Before he took his degree, several of his college 
friends had been ordained and had settled in various 
cures ; but kept up a regular correspondence with 
him, in which they informed him of their religious 
experience and ministerial difficulties and successes. 
They had different views of the best mode of effecting 
their important object ; some disapproving all irregu- 
larity; while others thought it essential to their use- 
fulness. One of them in a letter to Mr. Rowland Hill, 
giving an account of his labours in the neighbourhood 
of his parish, where the duty was great, says: — " you 
need not, I think, mention any thing to Simpson of 
what I design by the will of God to do in the ministry, 
either now or afterwards. I dare not give him any 
pain ; and though we think differently about the me- 
thods of advancing the kingdom of Christ, yet I am 
sure his eye is more single than mine, and what I very 
often take in myself to be a burning zeal is nothing 
but constitution. Mr. Berridge's plan I wish to follow 
the most of any method I have heard of, for he is a 
stated minister, and is actually himself at the head of 



48 The different views of his friends. 

what he calls his * shops,' so that he does not just 
preach and never see their faces, but is joined in society 
with them all." Mr. Berridge had great influence over 
Mr. Rowland Hill and his pious associates who followed 
the example of his itinerancy; and whatever differences 
of opinion may exist as to the expediency of their 
mode of proceeding, there can be no doubt that they 
were actuated by the purest and most truly Christian 
desire to sow as widely as possible the seeds of eternal 
truth in the uncultivated soil around them. When 
Mr. Berridge first entered on the duties of his ministry, 
and for some time after he was presented to the living 
of Ever ton by his college, he was prejudiced against 
both Wesley and Whitefield ; but his sentiments having 
changed, and his zeal having become the topic of con- 
versation in the religious circles of the day, a corres- 
pondence commenced between them, which was speedily 
succeeded by a confirmed intimacy. He afterwards 
separated from Wesley, and espoused the cause of his 
theological opponents. Mr. Berridge's first interview 
with John Wesley took place on the 2nd of June, 1758, 
and on the SSnd of the same month he began to 
itinerate, preaching in farm-yards, in fields, and wher- 
ever he could collect a congregation. The counties of 
Cambridge, Essex, Hertford, Bedford, and Hunting- 
don, were the principal scenes of his labours, and in 
this circuit he preached, upon an average, from ten to 
twelve sermons a week, and not unfrequently rode on 
horseback a hundred miles. He rented houses and 
barns, maintained lay preachers, and travelled at his 
own expense — charges which his fortune, inherited 
from his father, and his income from his preferment, 
enabled him to bear. Mr. Hicks, a clergyman in his 
neighbourhood, who had been converted by a sermon 



Mr. Berridge a?id his coadjutors. 



49 



he heard from him, was his chief companion ; and it 
has been computed, that the result of their preaching 
in one year, was the awakening of a sense of religion in 
about four thousand souls. The most violent opposi- 
tion was raised against him, which seemed only to stir 
up his strength and enkindle new zeal in his soul ; nor 
did he regard all the opprobrious names with which 
he was assailed by his enemies for more than twenty 
years. Thus in the early culture of certain portions 
of that soil, which is now under a more orderly tillage, 
and exhibits symptoms of an abundant harvest, God 
permitted the seed sown by the first spiritual husband- 
men, to be irregularly scattered on its surface ; and it 
could only be a sincere desire to make it fruitful, that 
stimulated the labours of these undoubtedly pious and 
indefatigable men. 

One of the lay preachers countenanced by Mr. Ber- 
ridge, was an individual well known at Cambridge 
by the familiar appellation of Johnny Stittle, an eccen- 
tric, uneducated, but naturally gifted man, perfectly 
devoid of the fear of any human being, and of a spot- 
less private reputation. Mr. Berridge thus notices 
him in a letter to Mr. Rowland Hill : " John Stittle 
preached at my house in the holidays ; he is a wonder- 
ful man indeed ; somewhat lifted up at the present, I 
think ; but his Master will take him by the nose by 
and by." During the whole of Mr. Hill's residence 
at college, he was in constant communication with 
Mr. Berridge and his friends, who urged him to per- 
severe in his irregular administrations. He had, 
while an undergraduate, diligently taken care of what 
he called "his little flock at Cambridge;" and his 
labours there, as well as in numerous other places, had 
involved him in a series of troubles which would have 



E 



50 



Effects of Mr. HilVs labours. 



damped all the energies of a less zealous and enter- 
prising spirit. The numbers, however, who were 
a\f akened to an interest in their souls by his exertions, 
the sincere and devoted attachment of his friends, the 
great work of grace in his own family, and the con- 
sciousness of sincerity, were his consolations, and pre- 
pared him to pass with fortitude through the difficulties 
which lay in the course which he had determined to 
pursue ; which was, to hold communion " with men of 
all sorts, provided they were of the right sort;'' and 
to cast the gospel net whenever an opportunity pre- 
sented itself, looking to the church for orders and a 
standard of doctrine. 



51 



CHAPTER II. 

Mr. Roivland Hill refused orders by si.v bishops. 

When Mr. Rowland Hill proceeded to his first degree, 
he was more than twenty-three years of age ; and he 
therefore immediately exerted himself to the utmost to 
obtain orders. His irregularities while at Cambridge, 
and his disinclination to promise to confine himself in 
future to the rules of the church, caused him to expe- 
rience the mortification of refusals of ordination from 
no fewer than six bishops. Still, such was the impres- 
sion on his mind that it was his duty to preach the 
gospel, that he could hardly be persuaded to retire 
amongst his friends for a short period, previous to 
each successive application for admission into the 
church. The world around him was in gross darkness, 
and he longed to impart to it a few rays of heavenly 
light : he saw sin every where powerful, and his soul 
was stirred up to combat the enemy of man's salvation. 
Had he lived in these days of more widely extended 
truth, he would probably have waited in patience and 
in prayer. He could not, however, endure the thought 
of leaving his followers at Cambridge ; and he went 
frequently to the university for the purpose of con- 
tinuing his administrations among them, a circumstance 
which threw a serious obstacle in the way of his being 
episcopally ordained. He had also an impression on 
his mind that his life would be very short, and he 
earnestly desired to spend the brief existence he con- 
ceived to be allotted to him here, in the active sexvice 
of God. His college friends, now ordained and occupy- 

E 2 



52 



Co7idolertre of hia frimds. 



ing stations in the church, sympathized with him most 
feelingly on his disappointment. One of them, the 
Rev. E. Buckley, of Kippax, near Ferrybridge, York- 
shire, adds to his expressions of condolence, an invita- 
tion to his house in the following urgent terms : — 
" My dear friend, I had the favour of yours, and know 
not whether to say I am sorry or not for the refusal 
you have lately met with, since I doubt not it is the 
will of a good and gracious God that it should be so. 
It would be conferring an honour and pleasure upon 
me, if you would make my house your home, and the 
sooner you come, the greater will be the obligation. 
Let the next post inform me that you are on your 
journey northwards : perhaps the Bishop of York, who 
is one of the most candid men in the world, will do for 
you what the Bishop of Lichfield has refused ; we pro- 
bably can muster up some friends for you here, who 
will stir and interest themselves more in your behalf 
than any of your own relations." Another of them 
writes — When I think of your present situation from 
your late disappointment, forgive me if I have now and 
then some fears of your zeal becoming damped, and 
your love for souls waxing cold. Oh ! that my fears 
may be without foundation. Indeed, my dear Rowly, 
we had need be praying night and day that the Lord 
would be pleased to make us the happy, though un- 
worthy, instruments of reviving his work." This last 
sentence declares the great object of the zeal of these 
devoted young men ; and whatever difference of opinion 
Christians may have of their mode of endeavouriBg to 
promote a revival of religion, there can be only one of 
the integrity of their intentions. 

The death of Mr. Whitefield had deprived Mr. 
Rowland Hill of the guide by whom he had been 



Advice of Mr. Berrklge. 



53 



directed in his former difficulties. Mr. Berridge, now 
his chief adviser, recommended him " to stand still 
and not to hurry." " When the cloud," he says in a 
very long letter, dated Jan. 19, 17T0, " seems to move 
towards any place, prepare to follow it, but pray still 
to be kept from the delusions of your own spirit, and 
from the wrong counsel of others." " Be not," he 
adds, " anxious about orders ; they ^"^'^^^ come as soon 
as wanted ; nor be anxious about any thing but to 
know the Lord's will, and to do the Lord's work. One 
of your Master's titles is Counsellor, and a wonderful 
counsellor he is. Therefore ask no counsel, and take 
no counsel but of the Lord ; so shall you walk more 
evenly than if you had the whole congregation of 
gospel divines at your elbow every moment to advise 
you. Your late successful expedition seems a provi- 
dential prelude for a field preacher next summer ; and 
if Yorkshire is to be the field of action, Wales must 
lay' out of your way." 

The winter of 1769-70 Mr. Rowland Hill passed 
comfortably in his father s house at Hawkstone, and 
if the Bishop of Lichfield would have ordained him, 
he might have had a title for orders in the adjacent 
village of Weston ; but the preaching expedition 
alluded to by Mr. Berridge, and his former course, 
decided the bishop to refuse his application. Hitherto 
his brother Richard had been an active lay preacher ; 
but he Vv'-as prevailed on to relinquish that work, and 
seek other modes of usefulness derivable from his 
fortune and station. Mr. Richard Hill's giving up 
preaching was a great grievance to Mr. Berridge, who 
thus alludes to it when writing in his quaint and 



' Mr. Berridge had a whimsical objection to the word lie^ except in its bad 
sense. 



54? Mr. HilVs admiration of the Liturgy. 

peculiar style to his brother Rowland : " As Paul was, 
so be thou a fool for Christ's sake ; yea, the very scum 
and off-scouring of all things. I believe the Lord 
Jesus, who has a peculiar love for your family, 
intended this honour for your elder brother, but 
through bad advice he has declined it ; and the Lord 
now seems to be conferring this honour upon you, 
which will make the younger brother prove at length 
the better gentleman. I am glad you find a peaceful 
refuge for the present, and good winter quarters at 
Hawks tone ; but if the Lord makes you take the 
field in the spring, and gives success, you may expect 
friends and foes will fasten on you like leeches ; and 
needfully fasten to draw out the hot and bad blood 
which a successful expedition will occasion." 

In all his deviations from the course prescribed by 
the church of England, Mr. Rowland Hill continued 
unalterably attached to her articles and liturgy, and 
was never, like some of his early friends, troubled 
with conscientious scruples as to subscribing to them. 
No person ever exceeded him in his admiration of the 
spirituality and beauty of the book of Common Prayer, 
and he used also to speak very highly of the homilies. 
He once remarked, in allusion to the objects of the 
Prayer Book and Homily Society, that they could 
distribute few books more likely to be useful, than 
a judicious selection from those " good soimd old- 
fashioned sermons." It was impossible not to be struck 
with his devout attention, in his own chapel, to the 
reading of the prayers ; and he often expressed the 
strongest disapprobation of the apparent disregard 
shown to them by those who came in after service 
was begun. He always considered the want of a 
vivid perception of the excellence of the liturgy as an 



Scruples of Mr. Pentycross. 



55 



evidence of a lack of spirituality ; and in conversation 
would frequently repeat parts of it with great energy, 
and say, " Well done the good old reformers ; what 
fine scriptural ideas they had ; if they were alive now, 
I would try to get them into Surry chapel pulpit." 

This was not the case with his friend Pentycross ; 
he had many scruples about the book of Common 
Prayer, which Mr. Berridge endeavoured to remove. 
He notices it in a letter to Mr. Rowland Hill, in which 
he says, " Poor Penty, I fear, will not take a degree, 
or not take it honestly. He came to my house about 
three weeks ago, and brought two pockets full of 
doubts and scruples relating to the articles and liturgy. 
I would fain have had the scruples left at Everton, 
but he took them all back with him to college, and 
seemed determined not to part with them. However, 
from the precipitate step he formerly took in signing 
a college paper, I apprehend it possible he may take 
a flying leap into a degree still. There is something 
very amiable in dear Penty, I believe the Lord loves 
him, and designs him for great things. Perhaps he 
may be intended for a spiritual comet, a field preacher 
like yourself : this seems to be his great aim and 
ambition. If he cannot subscribe to the church articles, 
he does not mean to settle among the dissenters ; he 
wants to raise a flock of his own, and I hope the Lord 
will give him one. When he left me he talked of 
going to the Welsh college.^ May the Lord direct 
him." 

If ever there existed a set of Christians who differed 
without dissension, it was that to which Mr. Rowland 
Hill belonged at Cambridge. Their leader, Mr. Ber- 
ridge, spent his ample fortune in the service of religion, 

^ Lady Huntingdon's at Trevecca. 



56 



Mr. Berridge and his followers , 



and in the employment of persons as preachers, into 
tlie essentials of whose characters and opinions he 
alone enquired. His resources were so exhausted in 
his old age, that his friend, Mr. Romaine, is found 
begging on his behalf, " for the support of two 
preachers and their horses, and several local preachers, 
and for the rents of several barns in which they 
preach." Into whatever streams the current of his 
life diverged, they were all tributary to the cause of 
his Redeemer. 

In the spring of 1770 Mr, Rowland Hill's active 
spirit brought him out into exertion from the retire- 
ment of his father's house. This involved him in 
trials and difficulties such as he had not before expe- 
rienced. Besides his fathers displeasure, and his 
disappointments in liis endeavours to obtain orders, he 
met with violent opposition on many occasions, and 
was often pelted and abused by the assemblies he 
addressed. He was extremely desirous of accompany- 
ing his sister into Scotland, to visit lady Glenorchy, 
but was unable to accomplish the journey, and he 
afterwards acknowledged that it v/as a providential, 
though a severe disappointment. Instead of going to 
Edinburgh, he took up his abode in the house of his 
friend Mr. Buckley, and while there he received a long 
letter of advice and comfort from Mr. Berridge, who 
says, " I look upon your present trials as a happy omen 
of future service ; and if you continue waiting and 
praying, a door will open by and by. Be not solicitous 
about orders ; as soon as they are wanted they will 
drop into your lap. I would observe concerning your 
present situation, it may possibly grow more dark 
before it clears up. The darkest moment in the whole 
micthemerou is just before break of day." He then 



Mr. Rowland Hilts frst visit to Bristol. 57 

adds, " give my dear love to Mr. Buckley : lie must be 
an honest and bold man for Jesus if he can welcome 
you. A\liat a mercy it is there are some left who are 
not afraid of the cross, nor ashamed to receive a 
stigmatized pilgrim." 

Mr. Rowland Hill generally resided at Hawkstone 
in the winter, but visited, in his preaching expeditions 
at other seasons of the year, an immense number of 
places ; and though he suffered greatly from innumer- 
able trials, and every species of opposition, he had the 
consolation of abundant success. In the autumn of 
1770, while with Mr. Buckley, he was the instrument 
of many conversions in Yorkshire, particularly at 
Leeds. Of this he was apprized in a letter from a 
Mr. Iveson of that place, who says, "indeed, dear sir, 
many souls here remember with joy and gratitude the 
happy times they enjoyed under your ministry." The 
same person adds, "Mr. J. Wesley, in a letter to 
Miss Hirrold, expresses his approbation of your 
preaching amongst his people. From this I suppose 
you will be cordially received by all his preachers, as 
they are informed of his good will towards you." He 
also assures him that the Wesleyans, at Leeds, 
regarded him with the sincerest affection, and were 
much attached to his preaching. 

In the spring of 1771? he commenced preaching at 
Bristol, and in the neighbourhood. He was introduced 
to the Tabernacle congregation there by Mr. Cornelius 
Winter, who bears testimony to the usefulness of his 
sermons, and considers having made his acquaintance 
as one of the greatest mercies of his life. " From 
the sabbath," he says, " on which I had the pleasure to 
introduce him into the Tabernacle pulpit, has religion 
been reviving through his instrumentality, and the 



58 



His didress. 



flame has burned strong ever since. Other instruments 
may have helped, but it began with him." He was at 
this time under the frowns of his family, disappointed 
of admission into the church, and distressed for money. 

Sir Rowland Hill restricted his allowance to a very 
small sum, both in token of displeasure at his itinerant 
life, and to prevent it. But he was determined to go 
forth, though " without purse or scrip," and to pursue, 
in defiance of every human restraint, the course he 
conceived Providence had marked out for him. Many 
of his most arduous journeys were made upon a little 
Welsh pony given him by a clergyman, and he often 
left the scene of an evening sermon the next morning, 
without knowing where he should find at night a rest- 
ing place for himself and the faithful animal which 
carried him. He seldom, however, failed to meet with 
a kind reception from some person who loved him for 
his work's sake, though he was often reduced to great 
difficulties. On one evening in particular, as he used 
frequently to describe, when he landed on his return 
to Bristol, and had paid the passage across the Severn 
for himself and his pony, he had not sufficient left in 
his purse to procure a night's lodging, and went on, he 
knew not whither, hungry and exhausted. But he 
was not deserted, and before night found shelter and 
refreshment, as well as the means of proceeding on his 
journey. Impelled by the irresistible conviction that 
he was following the commands of God, he pursued his 
one great object undaunted by every earthly obstacle. 
No one could feel more acutely the displeasure of his 
parents, over which he often wept in the silent agony 
of his heart, nor did he ever once refuse compliance 
with their wishes but for the gospel's sake. He might 
have reposed amidst their smiles, in the lap of affluence. 



His Jirst sermon at Devizes. 



59 



ease, and plenty; but he gave up every tiling in the 
sincerest devotion to God, and received, as will be 
hereafter seen, the fulness of the promise, even in this 
life, to such as have willingly left all for the cause of 
the Redeemer. 

In the year 1771, many parts of Gloucestershire, 
Somersetshire, and Wiltshire, were visited by Mr. Row- 
land Hill. He has himself recorded in his diary many 
of the texts from which he preached, and the effect of 
his sermons. He there describes the difficulties he had 
to contend against, and the success which followed his 
efforts to spread a knowledge of the truth. Extracts 
from this journal will convey the truest idea of the 
state of his mind and the results of his ministry. 

" May 5, 1771, morning at Chippenham, Mark vi, 
47 — a very dead time. Evening at Devizes. The 
first gospel sermon^ that ever was preached there, on 
Isaiah i, 2, 3, Heai\ O heavens, and give ear, O 
earth: I have nourished and brought up, 8^c. S^c. Sup- 
posed to be many thousands. A little disturbance, 
though we trust a great blessing. Many thanked me 
for my sermon and besought me to return. Before I 
began preaching my heart was low, but afterward was 
abundantly comforted at the goodness of the Lord. 
A spirit of praise and thanksgiving was upon all the 
people, and all agreed that the town was taken. Hal- 
lelujah." 

In the midst of these labours he received the follow- 
ing letter of encouragement from the veteran in the 
same cause at Everton. 

DEAR ROWLY, Everton, May 8, 1771. 

My heart sends you some of its kindest love, 
and breathes its tenderest wishes for you. I feel my 



3 He muHt have meant the first in the recollection of persons then livinij. 



60 



Letter to ISlr. Berridge. 



heart go out to you whilst I am writing, and can em- 
brace you as my second self. How soft and sweet are 
those silken cords which the dear Redeemer twines and 
ties about the hearts of his children ! How different 
from mere natural affection, and much more from 
vicious self-love. Surely it is a pleasant thing to love 
with a pure heart fervently, and something of this love 
I feel for you, which brings a melting tear into my 
eye, and refreshes my very body as I write. Grace, 
mercy, and peace be with you. May heavenly truth 
beam into your soul, and heavenly love inflame your 
heart. I suppose you are now arrived in the West, 
and are working as a labourer in your master's vine- 
yard. Be faithful and diligent, and look up to your 
master continually for direction and assistance. Re- 
member his gracious promise, " Lo, I am with you 
always, even to the end of the world." He will supply 
you with wisdom, strength, and courage: for he sends 
none upon a warfare at their own cost. I think your 
chief work for a season will be to break up fallow 
ground. This suits the accent of your voice at 
present. God will give you other tongues when they 
are wanted ; but now he sends you out to thrash the 
mountains, and a glorious thrashing it is. Go forth, 
my dear Rowly, wherever you are invited into the 
devil's territories ; carry the Redeemer s standard along 
with you; and blow the gospel -trumpet boldly, fearing 
nothing but yourself. If you meet with success, as I 
trust you will, expect clamour, and threats from the 
world, and a little venom now and then from the 
children. These bitter herbs make good sauce for a 
3^oung recruiting serjeant, whose heart would be lifted 
up with pride, if it was not kept down by these 
pressures. The more success you meet with, the more 
opposition you will find : but Jesus sitteth above the 



M)'. Roichnul HilVs jonrnaL 



61 



water-floods and remaiiieth a king for ever. His eye 
is ever upon you, and his heavenly guards surround 
you. Therefore fear not; go on humbly, go on boldly, 
trusting only in Jesus, and all opposition shall fall 
before you. Make the scriptures your only study, 
and be much in prayer. The apostles gave themselves 
to the word of God and to prayer. Do thou likewise ; 
labour to keep your mind in a heavenly frame ; it will 
make your work pleasant, and your preaching and 
your conversation savoury. Now is your time to 
work for Jesus ; you have health and youth on your 
side, and no church or wife on your back. The world 
is all before you, and providence your guide and 
guard. Go out therefore, and work whilst the day 
lasteth : and may the Lord Jesus water your own soul, 
and give ten thousand seals to your ministry. I am 
with great affection your J. B e. 

For R, Hill, Esquire, to be left with the right honourable 

the Countess of Huntingdon, at Bath, in Somersetshire. 

On the day after the date of this letter, Mr. Row- 
land Hill proceeds in his diary — " May 9th, Bridge- 
water, on Luke xix, 10 — The So?i of Man came to seek 
and to save that ivhich ivas lost, A large assembly of 
people, but very little comfort. Lord, v/hat an unpro- 
fitable servant. O that I might do better for the 
future." 

" 10th, at Sto wey, to the most outrageous congrega- 
tion I ever saw. There was such a noise with beating 
of pans, shovels, &c. blowing of horns and ringing of 
bells, that I could scarce hear myself speak. Though 
we were pelted with much dirt, eggs, &c. I was enabled 
to preach out my sermon." 

"11th, at Putsham, to a serious and attentive con- 



62 



Mr. Rowland HilVs journal. 



gregation out of doors, on Heb. ii, 17, 18, on the com- 
passionate unchangeable priesthood of Christ. Though 
I had not a deal of liberty, yet some I believe were 
comforted in their souls. Though the congregation 
stood serious, some scoffed at a distance, others threw 
stones. One man was slightly cut, and another almost 
stunned by a blow which cut him violently over the 
eye. We could get neither sight nor knowledge of our 
secret enemies in this affair : may the Lord forgive 
and convert them." 

"Sunday, 12th, a day much to be remembered. 
Commented in the morning to a few serious people at 
Putsham. Some unction attended while I explained 
to them part of the first Psalm. After dinner, rode to 
Watchet, preached upon the prodigal son, I will arise, 
c^c. Luke XV, 18, 19, out of doors with some freedom 
and power, to some hundreds, who behaved with the 
deepest attention. This town seems totally conquered ; 
praise the Lord. From hence rode to Dunster, a 
market town, where was a congregation consisting of 
near 2,000 hearers. Though the gospel had only been 
preached here four times before, yet through the good- 
ness of the Lord in putting it into the heart of a 
magistrate to punish offenders, all opposition seems to 
be at an end. The people behaved with the most 
awful attention, while I was enabled to preach with 
much freedom on Is. xlviii, 22, There is no peace for 
the wicked. After having finished here about a quarter 
after seven, according to a very pressing invitation, 
after a little refreshment, I went with three hundred 
souls to Minehead, who came over to hear and invite 
the preaching to their town. A congregation, which 
was supposed to consist of full 2,000 souls, was pre- 
sently collected. All but a very few of the upper sort 



Mr. Roivland HilVs journal. 



C3 



of people behaved with remarkable attention, and 
seemed deeply struck at the majesty of the word, 
which came with power, and having great liberty, and 
being enabled to pour forth my soul amongst them 
with much love while explaining to them Luke xiv, 21, 
Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city^ 
and hring in^ 8sf. ^cT 

" 13th, at Melscomb (Melksham), on 1st of Isaiah, 
2, 3, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth : I have 
nourished, ^c. A miserable, dry, humbling time. A 
large number of people unaffected and inattentive ; it 
was in a dissenting meeting-house. I wanted hum- 
bling, the Lord make it useful, and take away my 
pride." 

" 14th, at Stokegomar, on Jer. iii, 33, In vaiji is 
salvation hoped for f^om the hills, Here also 

I had rather a humbling time. Some were offended at 
my plainness ; others, however, were blessed." 

"Wednesday, 15th, in the morning at 5 o'clock. 
Explained to them the 23rd Psalm with comfortable 
enlargement : The Lord will not always he chiding. 
O that I may learn humility for the future. In the 
evening at Bridgewater, on Job xlvi, 4, Behold, I am 
vile. With some liberty. The congregation was not 
to large, which I fear was occasioned by the deadness 
of my preaching the last time. I think this is the 
first time I ever preached to a decreasing congregation. 
Lord, make me careful and prayerful." 

" 15th continued, and preached again at Bridge- 
water, with some though not so great freedom as the 
time before. By what I have seen in this western 
round, I believe that God is about to revive his work 
in the midst of us. Doors are opening every where, 
the hearing ear and the understanding heart are given 



64 



Field preaching. 



to many. I am more than ever convinced that itine- 
rant preaching does a world of good, and that God 
blesses it continually. O for more life and diligence 
to do more for Christ." 

Mr. Hill next returned to Bristol, and preached 
there twice on Sunday the 19th. He concludes his 
notice of these serjnons by the remark — a gracious 
gale through mercy attended all day. Who would not 
be a slave for Jesus Christ !" On the morning of the 
following day he preached at Kingswood, and, " in the 
evening," he says, he had the honour to commence 
viler than ever by renewing field preaching in Bristol, 
to some thousands, upon Acts iii, 19, Ilej)entye, there- 
fore, and he converted, that your sins may he hlotted 
out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the 
'presence of the Lord. The word was with power, 
the people were deeply attentive, and a great blessing 
seemed visibly in the midst of us. I am fully satisfied 
as to field preaching. I know the Lord puts honour 
upon it, and am sure that as soon as ever that custom 
dies, methodism will die with it." 

While at Bristol he continued these labours daily ; 
and in one sermon he says he spoke much against 
the Arians," and that he had " a comfortable, profitable 
time." His text was Is. liv, 5, Thy Maker is thy 
hushand. He adds, " glory be to God for the smiles 
and refreshings we have had during these holy days. 
The Lord I trust has been abundantly with us in 
refreshing showers from above. Some few have been a 
little provoked ; I cannot help it ; I mean not to 
offend, but I must be faithful. The lovingkindness 
of the Lord should teach me to be honest ; he has 
abundantly given me the hearts of the people to coim- 
terbalance all opposition. Hallchijah." 



Earhj fice o'clock preachings. 



65 



He now proceeded to Bath, and addressed the society 
of Lady Huntingdon there ; he also preached three 
sermons in the neighbourhood, the first of which he 
designates " a senseless unfeeling sermon to a senseless 
unaffected congregation ;" from the second he derived 
more comfort, having been enabled to overawe an 
assembly disposed at first to riot, and who, after they 
had heard him, earnestly entreated him to come again ; 
and from the third he expected a blessing, as some 
scoffers were drawn out into attention. The day after 
the last mentioned sermon, he returned to Bristol. 
His feelings in that city are thus described in his own 
words — " May 29th, on Luke v, 13, / will, he thou 
deem, A comfortable time for poor doubters at the 
Tabernacle. I have hitherto always found enlargement 
at Bristol, and I believe the Lord is with us for good." 

In addition to his other labours, Mr. Rowland Hill 
began, while at Bristol, " early five o'clock preachings," 
which were exceedingly well attended ; and he was 
followed by congregations of "many thousands" at 
Pool, and various places in the neighbourhood. He 
found " much comfort " from a visit to Worcester ; and 
on his return to Bristol, preached at Stroud, " in the 
streets, to a very large number of people, with some, 
though no great power, on the prodigal son, / will 
arise, Ssp. ; many people much offended at my plain- 
ness, but much blessed to others." On the evening of 
the day he preached at Stroud, he addressed " some 
thousands in the wood " at Rodborough, which he 
repeated a few days after, and says, " the people were 
watered though I thought myself dry." The next 
place he mentions in Gloucestershire, was " Painswick, 
upon the common, in a waggon for my pulpit," and 
the following evening at Rodborough, in the Taber- 



66 June 16, l^^l, first sermon at Wotton. 

nacle, "because it was damp." On Sunday, June l6th, 
he preached at Dursley to immense crowds, and went, 
for the first time, on the evening of that day, to Wot- 
ton-under-edge, a place that was destined to become 
his favourite summer residence in after life. His own 
account is — " Sunday eve. Wotton-under-edge, a fresh 
place. The first sermon amongst them ; they behaved 
with remarkable attention, and stood in great crowds 
under the market-place, while I spoke from Ephes. v, 14, 
Awake, thou that sleepest, 8^c, My soul upon the whole 
was much at liberty, and the people seemed much re- 
vived." An old lady of one of the most respectable 
families in the town, who was awakened to a sense of 
religion under his ministry, used frequently to describe 
his first visit to Wotton. She was sitting at her tea, 
when a relation suddenly came in, and said, "Ann, 
the baronet's son, who goes about preaching, is now 
under the market-house." "Are you sure it is the 
baronet's son himself?" "Yes, that I am, for I saw 
his brother, Mr. Richard Hill, not long ago, and he is so 
like him, I am sure he is of the same family." Upon 
this she accompanied her friend out of curiosity to see 
and hear the stranger, little thinking of the alteration 
his preaching would be the means of producing in her 
own views of herself and of her Saviour. One man 
who stood by her seized a stone and was going to 
throw it at Mr. Hill ; but another who was near him 
laid hold of his arm and said, in the broad dialect of 
Gloucestershire, " if thee dost touch him I'll knock thy 
head oiF," when the assailant dropped the stone, and 
the people all became quiet, overawed by the solemnity 
of the subject, and the earnestness of the preacher. 
From Wotton he went to Bath, where he preached a 
very offensive sermon, yet much blessed." 



His progress in the West, — Anecdote. G7 

In Gloucestershire he lost no opportunity of address- 
ing the multitudes who followed him. The effects 
produced by his sermons are thvis described by himself: 
" few dry eyes among them " — " certainly God is 
amongst us " — " all things go on gloriously here " — "a 
humbling dry time to my own soul" — "a small dead un- 
affected audience," [in a yard at Cheltenham] — "what-^ 
miserable work it is to preach to the rich," and so on. 
His chief opponents on this tour were some of the in- 
habitants of Devizes, who pelted him with eggs and 
stones, and followed him to an adjacent village, where 
" were many poor simple people longing to hear ; but 
some of the Devizes persecutors spoilt the opportunity 
by molesting us as much as they could." He found 
also a similar spirit of opposition at Marlborough, 
where he preached " upon the green, from Isa. xlviii, 
22, There is no "peace for the ivicJeed, to a very rude 
and rebellious congregation, who laughed even at the 
mention of the text — they pelted me with stones and 
eggs, but through mercy I was not hurt." On one 
occasion in this neighbourhood he stood upon a village 
green preaching to a great multitude, part of whom 
became very uproarious and assailed him with every 
species of offensive missile. His subject was the power 
of the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of the 
wicked one, and just as he was speaking of the attacks 
of Satan, one of the most turbulent of his adversaries 
threw a live snake at him. He took it quietly up in 
his handkerchief, and said, " This is one of the darts 
of the wicked one, but faith enables me not to fear." 
The man, struck with his manner, stood to hear out 
the sermon, under which he was so impressed, that 
he acknowledged his error to the messenger of God 
he had insulted, and became a devoted Christian all 
the rest of his life. 

F 2 



68 



Letter fro m Sit iprn an. 



The next scene of Mr. Rowland Hill's exertions 
was Plymouth and its neighbourhood, where he 
preached to immense congregations, though much 
distressed by a letter" he had received from certain 
influential persons forbidding him to preach " in their 
parts" any more. From Plymouth he returned to 
Bristol, and visited many of the places before-men- 
tioned in its vicinity ; after which he made a tour in 
South Wales, which concluded the labours of 1771. 

Towards the close of this year he received a letter 
from Shipman, one of the expelled from Oxford in 1768, 
giving him an account of the triumphant death of one 
of his brothers, two of whom he had lost. It is the 
production of a devout, and certainly not an illiterate 
person. " Why," says he, " art thou cast down, O my 
soul ! Is there not reason to rejoice ? The spirits of 
two of my dear brothers are now with God. All hail, 
ye happy spirits ; now are you joined to the glorious 
company of archangels, angels, and spirits of just men 
made perfect ; now do you see Jesus, whom unseen 
you loved ; now are you singing the song of Moses 
and the Lamb, and worshipping the great and glorious 
God face to face ; now, while I am left in a world of 
misery and surrounded with mighty enemies, the 
world, the flesh, and the devil, you are secure in the 
embraces of your God, and basking in the beams of 
uncreated glory." This is the energetic language of 
one, who but for the sentence passed on him at Oxford, 
would gladly have become a minister of the church of 
England, and whose irregularities were only occasioned 
by his horror at the darkness visible which covered, as 
with a funeral pall, the face of the whole land. 

January, 1772, found Mr, Rowland Hill in his 
usual winter quarters at Hawkstone, where he re- 



Anecdote. 



69 



ceived accounts, in letters from his friends, of the re- 
sults of his itinerancy during the preceding summer. 
One of his correspondents, Mr. Hunt, of Bristol, in a 
letter dated Jan. 22, 1772, says, " I frequently call to 
mind the blessed seasons we have had together, when 
the Lord's glory shone round about us, and his power 
rested upon our souls. With what pleasure did I then 
behold the large and attentive congregations hanging 
as it were upon your lips. O for more of those glo- 
rious times, however enthusiastic in the sight of the 
world, and imprudent in the sight of some professors. 
They were of God — they led to God." Speaking of 
Mr. Richard Hill, he writes — " your dear brother in 
his letter desires to be remembered to us. Be pleased 
to present my kind respects to him in behalf of hun- 
dreds to whom he is very dear. His labours of love 
last summer will be long had in remembrance." To 
this letter is added the following postscript : — " Mr. 
Kinsman, in a letter to a friend, writes thus— Dear 
Mr. Hill was much blessed at Plymouth to the stirring 
up of many young professors, &c. ; may God fill you 
with humility." 

After what has been before stated of Mr. Richard 
Hill, the allusion to his labours in this letter will be 
received with surprise. The circumstances under 
which he was prevailed on to recommence preaching 
are as remarkable as the fact itself. Sir Rowland Hill, 
gratified by his cessation from his once favourite pur- 
suit, sent him to Bristol to prevail on his brother 
Rowland to follow his example and return home. On 
his arrival at Bristol, Mr. Richard Hill heard that 
Rowland was gone to Kingswood to preach to the 
colliers. He immediately followed him, and found him 
surrounded by an immense multitude of these long 



70 



Letter of Mr. Berridge. 



neglected people, listening with the greatest interest to 
the solemn appeal he was making to their consciences. 
Mr. Rowland Hill saw his brother, and guessing his 
errand, only proceeded with increased earnestness ; and 
such was the power of his address, that the black faces 
of the poor colliers soon exhibited innumerable channels 
of tears, which the sermon had caused them to shed. 
Mr. Richard Hill was much affected by the unusual 
scene, and his brother, taking advantage of his emotion, 
announced, at the conclusion of the service — " My 
brother, Richard Hill, Esq., will preach here at this 
time to-morrow." Taken by surprise under the im- 
pression produced by what he had just witnessed, 
Mr. Richard Hill consented to preach to the colliers ; 
and instead of returning with his brother to Hawk- 
stone, became his coadjutor in the very work he 
designed to persuade him to relinquish. This is the 
true version of a story which has been variously 
related, and is one of the most remarkable instances 
of the tact and persuasive power possessed by 
Mr. Rowland Hill. 

Testimonies of his usefulness, similar to those con- 
tained in the letter of Mr. Hunt, were sent him from 
many other quarters, together with congratulations on 
the kind reception, accompanied with some trials, he 
informed his friends he had received in his own family. 
No one wrote to him with more cordiality than his old 
friend Mr. Berridge, who was looking forward to the 
enjoyment of receiving him at Everton, when he came 
to the university to take his Master of Arts degree. 
He tells him that he must consider his admission to 
his father's house as " mercy from the Lord, who 
prevents expulsion after nine months' itineration ;" 
and adds, " your retreat must have its trials too ; and 



Mr, Rowland HilVs success in London. ^\ 

kindly they are provided, lest you should love a retreat 
too well, and tarry too long." He advises him, more- 
over, to go on as soon as possible with his work, in 
spite of all opposition, and says — " you need not doubt 
of being in God's way, because he owns your word " — 
" make the best of your time ; and whilst the Lord 
affords travelling health and strong lungs, blow your 
horn soundly." In conclusion he adds, "I do not 
invite you to Ever ton when you come to Cambridge, 
because a man who has possession of my heart may 
enter my house without a call. Hearty love and 
respectful salutations to your brother, and hope when 
he visits Yelling he will not forget Everton. I have a 
chapel and a cathedral at his service. Grace be with 

you and with your J. B e." 

Following his old leader's advice, Mr. Rowland Hill 
came out from his retreat at Hawks tone in the spring 
of 1772, and visited his favourite Bristol, where, and 
in its vicinity, he preached many sermons. It appears 
from his memoranda that he went five times to 
Wotton-under-edge, though without any idea of making 
that most lovely spot his residence. During this tour 
the hills, woods, and vales of Gloucestershire were 
the scenes of his addresses to many thousands who 
assembled around him, and the character of the man 
had now begun to make an impression even on his 
enemies. 

In the summer of this year Mr. Rowland Hill was 
the means of reviving Mr, Whitefield's cause in London, 
and preached to immense congregations at the Taber- 
nacle and Tottenham Court chapel. His residence was 
the Tabernacle house in Moorfields, from which he 
made preaching excursions in the neighbourhood of 
London, in addition to his labours in the metropolis 



^2 Captain Joss. 

itself. The effects of his addresses to the people on 
these occasions were extraordinary in the extreme. One 
individual wrote him word for his encouragement, that 
the Lord had blessed the truths he had delivered, to 
" hundreds," nay, he might safely say " thousands," 
and earnestly entreats him to return as soon as possi- 
ble, as "multitudes longed for the time when they 
should hear him again." " Many," he continues, " I 
have visited on their sick beds,* blessing God for the 
time they heard you. Notes of thanks were put up 
from whole families stirred up to seek the Lord by 
your ministry." 

While Mr. Rowland Hill was engaged in London, 
Captain Joss, a zealous follower of Mr. Whitefield, 
was visiting and stirring up his Gloucestershire 
hearers, and sent him from time to time accounts of 
the progress of their cause, to which he added urgent 
exhortations to continue his exertions. " Enterpris- 
ing captains," he says, " in time of war make great 
interest to get roving commissions, in order that they 
may cruise where they please, and that an oppor- 
tunity might thereby fall in their way of making 
many prizes ; while lazy and cowardly captains make 
interest for a line of battle ship, in order that they 
may skulk under the lee of an admiral. God hath 
honoured you with a roving commission, and I am 
very glad that you keep the sea." If dubbed Cap^ 

* Many instances of this kind occurred as the result of his preaching : one most 
unexpectedly happened to myself. In the year 1821. Mr. Rowland Hill preached 
at Norwich, and about four years afterwards an old woman was brought from that 
city into the workhouse of Acle. She was taken ill, and I visited her, and found 
that she was acquainted with the way cf salvation as it is in Jesus. I enquired of 
her by what means she was brought to a knowledge of the way of life. She replied, 
" three or four years ago I saw a crowd going along a street in Norwich ; I asked 
where they were going, and they told me to hear the famous preacher called 
Rowland Hill. I followed them and could scarcely squeeze in ; but I heard him, 
and the Lord blessed that sermon to my soul. I knew nothing of Christ before, but, 
bless the Lord, I know him now." She died happily, trusting in her Saviour. 



Butcher Hogg, 



73 



tain Cra%y by poltroons," he advises him to disregard 
it, for " true sailors " would " go through fire and water 
for him, and love him dearly." Thus," he adds, 
" you see the sailor has tumbled down upon me un- 
awares, but a word to the wise is enough. I have 
been cruising in the latitude of Gloucestershire for 
fourteen days, and have met with some pretty smart 
engagements at Wotton, Dursley, and Kodborough, 
in particular. Last night, at Frampton, we had one 
shot fired at us, which struck brother Glover between 
wind and water ; he careened and stopped his leak, 
and v/e presently silenced the enemies, and I sincerely 
hope real good was done." 

Captain J oss was not his only assistant at this time ; 
there were those in Gloucestershire whose lives were 
spent in the endeavour to rouse their listless neigh- 
bourhood to a sense of religion. Amongst them, there 
was a man of the name of Hogg, a grazier and large 
butcher, at Painswick. He was a person whose cha- 
racter for integrity was so thoroughly appreciated, that 
even the irreligious farmers in the neighbourhood 
often said to him in dealing, " Mr. Hogg, we know 
you will give us the value of our cattle ; you are the 
best judge of the proper price, take them and pay us 
what you think them worth." Never in a single in- 
stance did they regret their confidence in his honesty. 
Amidst all his eccentricities his reputation was un- 
blemished ; and though not slothful in business, he 
was most fervent in spirit. He, too, wrote to Mr. 
Rowland Hill, to encourage and comfort him. He 
assures him of his respect, and urges him on to re- 
doubled diligence. " I pray," he says, " for your life; 
but I hardly think you will live many years ; and 
though I cannot spare you, I will not say spare thyself ; 



74 Mr, Rowland Hill takes his Master's degree. 

for if I know my heart, I do pray the Lord to give 
poor barren self leave to kill myself in crying aloud to 
poor sinners, and if I am not hoarse and weak for two 
or three days after the sabbath, I think I have been 
barren and dead." This man had tasted of the love of 
Christ, and devoted himself to the work of inviting 
others to participate in the same comforts he had him- 
self so richly enjoyed. 

In the summer of this year, Mr. Rowland Hill pro- 
ceeded to the degree of Master of Arts, at Cambridge, 
and visited his friends in the neighbourhood of the 
university. He also preached in London, and in many 
places in Kent and Surry, after which he retired, as 
the winter came on, to the seat of his family in Shrop- 
shire. From his friend Captain Joss he received, 
while there, accounts of his converts in London— we 
have taken," he informs him, " above one hundred into 
society concerning whom it may be said that you were 
the happy instrument of opening their eyes. There are 
many more with whom I have conversed, who I sin- 
cerely trust will be your crown of rejoicing in the day 
of the Lof d — indeed, my dear brother, what the Lord 
hath done by you in London, cannot but afford you 
matter of joy and humiliation." 

The style of Mr. Rowland Hill's addresses to the 
people was at this period of life extremely simple and 
forcible : they abounded with lucid views of the doc- 
trines of the gospel, mingled with sudden bursts of 
Advid, sublime, and sometimes singular illustrations. 
A specimen of this mode of appealing to the people is 
to be found in a preface to a little work containing an 
address to those who had been converted by his minis- 
try in London. It is dated Tabernacle house, August 
27th, 1772, and begins — " How happy is the man that 



An address of Mr. Roivland Hill in 1772« 7^ 

can assume this character to himself — a sinner saved ! 
Stop and consider — is it thine ? O then, what mira- 
cles of mercies have been revealed to thy heart! The 
world by nature know nothing of our Immanuel ; but 
the convinced sinner knows that he is lost without 
him ; he sees that he cannot be more completely fallen, 
or more certain of destruction than he is in himself. 
This strikes at the root of all his self-righteous pride, 
and compels him to cry out as with the prophet of 
old, * Woe is me! for I am undone,' Isa. vi, 5. He now 
trembles at justice and prays for mercy. He sees 
nothing else but flaming vengeance held forth by the 
law; and he owns that he deserves it as his portion for 
his iniquities. His legal hopes from a covenant of 
works now fall to the ground. Then it is the Lord 
the Spirit divinely convinces of the work of Jesus : he 
sees it, and is enabled, as his faith increases, to rest 
satisfied with the fulness of it, he rejoices in the dig- 
nity of it, and is happy in the security of it. This 
teaches him boldly to renounce all his home-spun 
righteousness as dung and dross : he dares not bring 
it as a condition at first, or as a wretched adjunct to 
complete the whole at last : no ; he renounces it 
wholesale^ and is enabled to rest only upon J esus as his 
everlasting all. 

" But does he not upon these principles renounce the 
law ? Yes, as a covenant of works, he renounces it 
altogether ; for, ' he is dead to the law through the 
body of Christ, that he may be married to another.' 
But does he renounce it also as a rule of life ? No, by 
no means ; for in this point of view he is still under 
the law of Christ ; and love to Christ makes him re- 
turn obedience as his privilege. Besides, among his 
new testament blessings, he has given him in covenant, 
with Christ his head, a new, i. e. obedient heart. O, 



76 



His views of the divine decrees. 



blessed are they then that believe in Jesus ; they have 
all things, the best of things, and all too for nothing." 
The doctrines stated here are a complete refutation of 
the charge of antinomianism so frequently brought 
against him. This awful error he denounced from his 
earliest days, to a few hours before he entered into his 
Saviour's presence in a world of glory. His doctrinal 
opinions remained unaltered to the latest moment of 
his existence. In speaking of the doctrine of election 
he used often to say — " here I am lost ; I cannot fathom 
with my puny understanding the mystery of the divine 
decrees — I can only say with St. Paul, O the depth, I 
know it is my duty to invite all to Christ, but the Holy 
Spirit of the living God can alone enable the sinner to 
accept the invitation. I do not like the word Keproha- 
tion — Prceterition is as far as I can go — why God 
passes hy some and accepts others I cannot tell — we 
must wait //// ive see as tve are seen, and know as we 
are knoivn. We know nothing — can any man tell me 
why grass is green? — then let us leave all explanations, 
and believe what God has revealed." 

Before he was ordained, the doctrines of Mr. Row- 
land Hill were exceedingly misrepresented ; and in the 
controversies which took place on these questions, 
there were found persons ready to fan rather than to 
allay a flame which tended only to consume, and not 
to enlighten, the portions of the Christian camp in 
which it burned. In a letter dated London, Nov. 16, 
177^5 Captain Joss, no doubt on the information of 

others, tells him, " Mr. W y said last night, election 

was the most horrid monster upon earth ; no name, 
said he, is bad enough for it, or them that hold it ; 
they are obliged to draw a veil over it, and only let a 
corner of the monster be seen, for if the beast were 
wholly unmasked, nineteen of the people out of twenty 



He defends hia doctrines against J. Wesley. 77 



would run away — and also said that he would write to 

the bench of b s, and that he would make Mr. R. H. 

ashamed of himself. Indeed he seems almost [in a] 
frenzy — many, many, many, send hearts full of love to 
you." On this and similar reports Mr. Rowland Hill 
remarks, in vindication of the practical nature of his 
preaching — " I bless God, it is our mercy (who are 
called Calvinists) that we can appeal to heaven, as well 
as to the consciences of all our hearers, that in the inte- 
grity of our hearts we are ever bearing the swiftest 
witness against all iniquity, without the least reserve ; 
and that we are making it the subject of almost every 
discourse that without holiness^ personal and universal 
holiness^ no man shall see the Lord. Yet with the 
greatest injustice is Mr. Wesley ever branding us with 
the detested name of antinomians, while he must be 
convinced, that in our inmost souls we entirely dis- 
own both the principles and practices of those revolters 
from obedience ; insomuch, that I have often known 
it to be a fact, that when some of those good people 
connected with him have ventured to break through 
his command to hear what dreadful doctrines we anti- 
nomians have to advance, they have been as much 
astonished at what they have heard in favour of holi- 
ness as if they had been sitting upon enchayited ground P 
No two Christians born of the Spirit of God can have 
essential differences — had there existed, in the times 
to which we are referring, such a centre of union as 
the Bible Society, upon whose platform all the varied 
colours of the prism are blended with each other in one 
common purity and brightness — had these zealous 
men come more together, slight would have been the 
controversy now to be recorded as having taken place 
between them. 



78 



CHAPTER III. 

Mr. Rowland Hill prepares for marriage and orders. 

In the beginning of the year 1773, Mr. Rowland Hill 
was contemplating in the retirement of Hawkstone 
two very important events — his marriage and his or- 
dination. During his visits to his brother-in-law he 
had formed an attachment to his sister, Miss Tudway, 
founded upon the evidences he perceived in her of the 
truest piety. Her mind had been diverted by the 
power of religion from the frivolous pleasures of the 
world, to seek the solid enjoyments of a life devoted 
to God ; and the choice of Mr. Hill could not have 
fallen on a lady more calculated to promote the hap- 
piness he was permitted to enjoy, in a union of nearly 
sixty years' duration. All the stories which have 
been told of his carelessness as a husband, and his 
public allusions to this excellent lady, are utterly with- 
out foundation. He was only amused at most of the 
anecdotes related of him, and said — " I wonder at 
people's invention ;" but when told it had been re- 
ported that he had made some remarks in public on 
Mrs. Hill's dress, he exclaimed with indignation — " It 
is an abominable untruth — derogatory to my character 
as a Christian and a gentleman — they would make me 
out a bear." 

The following letter, from Mr. Rowland Hill to 
Miss Tudway, will be considered by those who read it 
as a model for the courtship of a Christian. Upon the 
original are the words in the handwriting of Mrs. Hill, 
" First Letter." 



His Jirst letter to Miss Tiidway. 



79 



MY DEAR MADAM, 

I am told, by my dear sister, that you are no 
stranger to a very important correspondence, in which 
yon are a person very intimately concerned. Suffer 
me, dear madam, with the utmost simplicity, to speak 
all my mind. And first, I think I can safely say 
with all my heart, as before the presence of God, that 
I love your person — without this, on both sides the 
question, there can be no real happiness in such a 
connection as you know is upon the tapis. Permit 
me also to say, that I am fully persuaded of the truest 
work of grace upon your soul ; and though I know 
the sincerity of your mind makes you at times doubt 
of every thing, yet your very doubts to me are the 
strongest evidence of the sincerity of your heart. Thus, 
as a man and as a Christian, with your leave, would I 
be glad to make choice of you as my partner through 
life. But now, dear madam, let us, above all things, 
consult matters honestly before God as to your union 
with a poor worm in the character of a minister of 
Christ. Here I will be explicit, as I mean, above all 
things, to be honest before God. The present plan of 
labour, to which it seems evident to me it has pleased 
God to call me, will frequently compel me to leave my 
home, wherever it may be, and to take up at times the 
life of an itinerant, and such a life as this you must 
expect will sometimes be attended, as to myself, with 
hardships and contempt. Were your kindness for my 
person, however it might be the language of love, to 
make you attempt to dissuade me from this, such dis- 
suasion would not only be a burden upon my mind, 
but also, if not complied with, a grief to yourself — and 
now, dear madam, if such an union should take place, 
do you think you could make your mind perfectly easy 



80 



His first letter to Miss Tudway. 



in thus giving me up to the service of the Lord ? Can 
you be contented to see me a despised pilgrim for my 
once despised master, rejected for my labours, and re- 
proached for my God ? I know the diffidence of your 
mind will make you a little stagger at these questions, 
and yet I believe, at the same time, you will find some- 
thing arising at the bottom of your mind earnestly 
anxious to answer them aright. And should such be 
your views, should you be enabled to love me on the 
one hand, and yet to give me up when called to it on 
the other, suffer me to frame to myself the happy idea 
of being possessed of such a companion in tribulation, 
and such a partaker of my joys, as will give me reason 
of thankfulness to the day of my death. 

Thus much, however, you have of the dark side of 
the question, and I choose that you should know it, as 
I would not deceive you on any terms whatever : in 
other respects, as I am sure I love your person, I shall 
always think it my pleasure and duty to make your 
life a happiness to itself. One place we would have 
(and I wish it might be Bristol) which we might call 
more peculiarly our home. London is a place which 
will annually expect a considerable share of my time 
and labours ; and from the generous treatment I have 
ever received from all concerned in these parts, I have 
no doubt but you will enjoy, as being connected with 
me, equal freedom, without expense or trouble, as if 
entirely at home. 

Will you be so kind as to inform my dear sister 
Tudway that, after much consultation before the 
Lord, I sent the letter, as she altered it, to my dear 
father last Tuesday. As yet I have received no answer; 
when I have, you and she shall immediately hear the 
event. In about a week's time I shall move towards 



Mr. Tudwai/\' interest in hi>i ordination. Jil 

Cambridge, if nothing in Sir Rowland's letter prevents. 
I do not request, though I shall wait with earnestness, 
for a speedy answer to this. Dear madam, take your 
time, pray it over, and if you can write, write all that 
is in your mind ; but if you choose not to do this, 
speak to my dear kind sister, and she will tell me what 
you say upon this occasion. 

My dear madam, may grace be with you, and may 
we both be directed for the best. So prays 
Your most truly affectionate friend 

and servant for Christ's sake, 

Rowland Hill. 

There is no date to this letter, but from mention of 
the journey to Cambridge, and the expression, " these 
parts," in reference to London, it appears to have been 
written from the metropolis, just before he left it to 
take his Master of Arts degree in 177^. 

It was through the instrumentality of Mr. Tudway 
that Mr. Rowland Hill was ordained deacon. The 
state of mind in which he contemplated this event will 
be best illustrated in his own words, in a letter to Miss 
Tudway. 

MY VERY DEAR MADAM, Berwick, Feb. 2nd, 1773. 

I suppose by this time you, my dear sister, 
&c., are now all got safe to London ; I therefore sit 
down to tell you all about it. I did not get home till 
Friday last, and was stopped on the Thursday, on the 
road, by the severest wetting I think I ever met with. 
Upon my arrival I found all things well ; nothing was 
said about my long stay from home, as they did not 
themselves expect me before. 1 am now for a day or 
two with Mr. Powys, of Berwick. 



S2 



Letter to M}^.^ Tudujaij. 



Now concerning this application to your old bishop 
for ordination. Mr. Tud way's kindness in offering 
his assistance I most gratefully acknowledge, and for 
the sake of the pleasure it would give my friends and 
relations, glad should I be to see the event brought 
about. So far as I can, therefore, without wounding 
my conscience, I would do the utmost in my power 
not to frustrate the event ; and if Mr. Tudway chooses 
first to sound [the bishop's] inclinations about it, and 
there seems a probability of success, I believe I could, 
with a safe conscience, while matters are in agitation, 
for a time withdraw from more public labours, so as 
not to give immediate disgust. 

I can, however, never think of making any future 
promises of altering my conduct from what it is at 
present, even after ordination, if I should see it my 
duty still to go on as before. 

* * * ^ * ^if iff 

It might be represented that I am a younger brother 
with a small fortune, that I was hred up for the church, 
have taken two degrees, consequently much has been 
expended on my education ; but that all is lost upon 
me without ordination — ^and that it is now too late to 
turn my hands to any other employment in life, &c. 
&c. &c. — and if he (the bishop) has heard of all my 
doings, it might be mentioned to him that, as I have 
taken a religious turn, it might be much better to 
ordain me, and let me into the church, thmi to compel 
me to go preaching in the fields, whether I would or 
no. Mr. T. might then mention, that if his lordship 
would take time to consider of it, Mr. Hill would, in 
the interval, get proper testimonials, title, &c. Per- 
haps, also, it might not be amiss to say, if he should 
not willingly comply, that Mr. R. Hill only requests 



Letter to Misa Tudway. 



83 



the favour of deacon's orders, as the Bishop of Carlisle 
has promised second orders whenever he applies. If 
he should ask the reason of this, it may be said, that 
as he unfortunately met with a repulse from the late 
Bishop of Ely, the Bishop of Carlisle, being then but 
just come upon the bench, was unwilling to counteract 
the Bishop of Ely, but [said] that after I was ordained 
deacon he would ordain me priest without any delay. 
Let me not, however, be thought to direct Mr. T. by 
these hints ; he knows best the bishop's temper, and, 
consequently, how to proceed. My brother also may 
be consulted. 

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *^ 

When the bishop comes down to Wells, I dare venture 
to say, that Canon Lovel will speak a kind word on my 
behalf, since I did not, while there, either preach at the 
C?'oss, or give them offence by any lay-preachings as 
they heard of. 

Thus much, my dear madam, concerning ordination. 
I desire to leave it simply to the Lord, and pray that I 
may be enabled to preserve a conscience spotless in the 
affair. I am fully persuaded what is my duty before 
God. I should be thankful for ordination ; but as I 
am forbidden to salute any man by the vjay, I must^o 
forward. At present I am what the world despises as 
a lay itinerant. I am certainly convinced of the Lord's 
blessing in the work ; this is a point that lies solemn 
upon my heart ; and, indeed, it gives me the sincerest 
happiness that my dear Miss T. would rather have me 
preserve an honest conscience before God, than by in 
the least injuring it, to enjoy the greatest advantages 
that this world can give. I should be glad, my dear 
madam, if you could hasten these matters, that my 
mind may be freed from a state of suspense. In the 

G 2 



84 



Letter to Miss Tudway. 



interval, I shall set myself hastily in concluding mat- 
ters here as to our union, and shall wait, not without 
anxiety, to hear how the bishop sounds, that I may 
know when speedily to prepare for my journey to 
London, that all things may be concluded as soon as 
convenient. I cannot help frequently making you the 
subject of my prayers. You are to be united to one 
who must bear the cross — this makes me feel for you 
with a tenderness and sympathy I cannot express. 
You may tell my dear brother that I made a loose at 
Hardwick last Sunday, [and] am to do so again the 
next. When I have heard from Bristol about the 
house in agitation, I will immediately inform you. In 
the interval, cease not to pray for and write soon to 
Yours most sincerely and most affectionately, 

To Miss Tudway. ROWLAND HiLL. 

This letter was soon followed by another, alluding to 
Miss Tudway's state of mind with regard to religion ; 
and describing his situation at home. 

Hough, Feb. 12, 1773. 

Thanks to my dear Miss T. for her imme- 
diate answer to my last on her arrival in London. I 
am happy also to hear that a God of providence pro- 
tected you all safe to your journey's end — -and what a 
mercy it is that we have a faithful, unchangeable, cove- 
nant-keeping God in Christ, as our God of grace, to 
preserve us safe in our journey from time to eternity. 
In spite of all your doubts and fears, I have no doubt 
for you, whatever you may have for yourself, that this 
will be your end, happiness, and consolation everlast- 
ing. You say in your letter that you fear you are a 



Letter to Miss Tudway. 



85 



hypocrite, though it is written for your consolation, 
" blessed is the man that feareth always ; " yet sure I 
am that this your much-afraid language is nothing 
better than the language of unbelief. You are too 
much for looking into self; you there find that all is 
misery. O, my dear madam, look but to Jesus, and 
there is salvation in abundance. 'Tis indeed a glorious 
thing to know our sins — to hate our sins, and our- 
selves upon account of them ; and when this is known, 
where should we fly but to the gospel iov a remedy? 
Remember this, that Mary Tudivay is as had as she 
can he — she is utterly undone^ — now where is she to 
look ? Only to Jesus. Her vile heart never can with- 
stand the power of his grace. Has she millions of sins 
that threaten her destruction ? the Lord has received 
double for them all. In Jesus she is complete : — the 
Lord give her poor trembling heart to believe this ; 
and then, as she is soon to change one of her names, so 
she will soon lose another — that ugly name much- 
afraid you will then be enabled entirely to disown. 
^ ^ =^ ^ ^ ^ 

Hawkstone at present is a furnace indeed. You may 
tell my brother that last Sunday, through the instiga- 
tion of , Sir Rowland absolutely forbad me leaving 

the family, so that poor Hardwick cannot have my 
attendance. I shall make some other trials ; the suc- 
cess that may attend them must be left to the Lord. I 
wrote to my brother sometime ago largely, upon the 
subject of my ordination, and now expect every post to 
hear from him again. My present situation is nothing 
but idleness, and almost total loss of time : this hurts 
my conscience not a little. I am sadly fearful lest 



The doctrine of total depravity was one on Avhich he always strongly insibtcil. 



S6 Mr, Rowland Hilfs journal, l^^3. 

these attempts for ordination should keep me longer 
from my work, which I am so fully persuaded of my 
call to from the Lord. Pray my dear brother to 
hasten on these matters, that I may know whether I 
can spare the time that may be required for this affair. 
As yet I have heard nothing from Bristol about the 
house. When I have I will let you know. My sister 
wants to add a postscript, and I have almost filled up 
the paper. 

I remain yours most sincerely and affectionately, 

R. Hill, 

Love to all dear Christian relations. My sister's 
pretty postscript is in the cover. 

Notwithstanding the difficulties attendant upon his 
entrance into orders from his former lay preaching, 
Mr. Rowland Hill could not resist leaving Hawkstone 
in March this year, upon a short journey. His own 
diary afibrds us this information. 

" March 1773, set out from Hawkstone; reached 
Coventry, preached at six in the evening to a small 
congregation, notice not having been given, in the 
Baptist meeting-house, upon Solomon's Song iv, 12-— 
77ie C/mrch of Christ a garden enclosed'' He says 
of Coventry-—" an appearance of good seems arising 
here." He continues, 

" Friday, March 26, hastened to Northampton, 
where I preached in the late Dr. Doddridge's meeting- 
house, to a large assembly, on Moses rifting up the 
serpent in the wilderness, John iii, 14, 15. Evening, 
to a still larger congregation, on the Prodigal Son, 
Luke XV. Lord's day morn, preached in the same 
place; excessively crowded, many stood without. Most 
attentive and serious, Rev. iii, 10, Behold I stand at 



I/ivitatlon of Mr. liyland. 



87 



the door and knock, 8^c. Blessed be God for a good 
appearance at Coventry and Northampton." 

Mr. Hill had received an invitation to Northampton 
the previous year in a letter written by Mr. Ryland, 
junior, Avho, after a few preliminary observations, 
proceeds, " Now, very dear Sir, my business is this 
with you. We have heard of thee, and that many 
times by the hearing of the ear, and we long to see 
you and hear from you the Lord's message. You may 
find room in a dozen houses, a thousand hearts, two 
Northampton pulpits, our best bed, [and] our large 
yard, which George Whitefield and (Ecom preached in. 
In very many neighbouring towns and villages, barns, 
malthouses, and orchards are at your service ; and if 
you would break up neighbouring fallow ground, we 
will find at any time at least 300 prayers and a dozen 
men to go with you in spite of devils, stones, or rotten 
eggs, or any thing else. There will be our friend 
Newton at Olney, within a dozen miles. In short, 
there will be work enough, and victuals enough, and 
drink enough, and joy enough." Mr. Ryland further 
observes come you must," and threatens if he did not 
mind him he would send him another letter " with a 
hundred names," adding " for by God's help we are 
determined you shall preach in Northampton before 
long." 

His journal proceeds, — " Olney, March 28, the same 
eve reached this place ; a very large congregation from 
every quarter attended. No meeting-house would 
nearly hold them. Preached out of doors for the first 
time. Go ye forth into all the world and preach the 
gospel to every creature, Mark xvi, 15, 16." 

From Olney he went to Woburn, the residence of 
his friend Mr. Grove, a gentleman of fortune, who, but 



88 



Letter to Miss Tuchcay. 



for his expulsion from Oxford in 1768, would have 
devoted himself to the church, from which he did not 
separate till he was refused readmission to the univer- 
sity, though he promised in future to conform to the 
statutes. 

At Woburn Mr. Rowland Hill preached on five 
occasions to large and attentive assemblies, with such 
success, that he remarks in his journal — "blessed be 
God for the appearance of great good here." Miss Tud- 
way justly feared that these irregularities would be- 
come known, and prove a hindrance to his admission 
into orders, and gave him her affectionate advice to 
discontinue them. This drew from him the following 
letter : — 

MY DEAR MADAM, 

Still do I continue a prisoner, though a pri- 
soner at large under this hospitable roof I wish I 
could get from hence to Cambridge, but cannot contrive 
it without either coming round by London, or being at 
a considerable expense in hiring a man and horse to 
travel with me across the country, to carry the few 
things I have with me. Besides. I really think my 
staying here will be much better, upon second consi- 
deration, than going to so public a place as Cambridge, 
where I am so well known, and where I shall meet 
with many solicitations to preach. Here therefore I 
will stay, and I have a hearty welcome, till the bishop's 
answer is received. On Saturday, at furthest, I shall 
hope to receive it, as I really dread staying over here 
on the Sunday, my temptations to preach will I know 
be so great ; and if I do not, as I am known in these 
parts, I know it will slacken dear Grove's hands, and 
grieve the dear people of God in the neighbourhood. 



Mr. Hill prepares for ordination. 



89 



Here, as well as in other places, there seems to be a 
more extensive opening than ever — O that I were at 
liberty to labour for my God. I wish you may be at 
ease about my conduct, since I can assure you I act 
with all the caution fn my power. I wish you never 
to feel one painful sensation about me, but that the 
kindest harmony of disposition may ever subsist be- 
tween us. I know your heart is upright before God — 
your fearing mind frequently perplexes you. I am 
sure it is a sign of a most tender heart, and such 
tender hearted disciples shall never want direction from 
above. 

If the bishop chooses to ordain [me] without pro- 
mise or condition, I should really prefer Scotland for 
many reasons. This, however, must be considered at 
another time. That the Lord may direct us both at 
all times is the constant prayer of 

Yours ever most tenderly [and] affectionately, 

R. Hill. 

Woburn, near Beaconshead, Bucks, Thursday evening. 

The answer of the bishop being favourable, Mr. 
Rowland Hill, though most reluctantly, withdrew into 
his native county — " there being," are the words in his 
journal, " a considerable prospect of my ordination — 
retired into Shropshire, and preached a few sermons at 
Hardwick, Marchamley, &c." Preaching was indeed . 
his element ; it was an exercise necessary to the health 
and vigour of his mind, so that Mrs. Hill used fre- 
quently to say, in his declining years, " what I dread 
is, lest he should ever be so feeble as not to be able to 
preach — in that case, what would become of him I 
cannot tell." It appears in a letter to Miss Tudway, 
written a few weeks before he went to London to be 



90 



Mr. HilVs marriage and ordination. 



married, that he was most impatient of the restraint 
now placed upon him, and that he trembled lest any 
of his former followers and friends should attribute his 
silence to the diminution of his zeal. " All that I fear 
is," he says, " lest my being in London should get 
wind, and lest my silence, and apparent change of con- 
duct, should disgust or dishearten the dear children of 
God. I have the tenderest sensations about these 
matters that can be conceived. I seem to be assured 
it is absolutely necessary for me to be as secret in 
London as possible, and I hope we shall be moving out 
of it again as soon as convenient. Ill-tempered profes- 
sors, that hate the power of godliness, already triumph 
— their triumphs have in a measure perplexed some 
that are sincere. The hearing of this has grieved me 
not a little. I do hope and trust that this triumph of 
the wicked is to be short. Till then, the utmost cau- 
tion I am convinced should be used, and other matters 
must be left to God." In this letter he also expresses 
his intention of giving up the house at Bristol, and 
informs Miss Tudway that a house was building for 
him at Wotton-under-edge, 

On the 23rd of May, 1773, Mr. Rowland Hill was 
married at Mary-le-bone church, and went immediately 
with Mrs, Hill into Somersetshire, where he was 
ordained deacon, on the Trinity Sunday following, by 
Dr. Wills, the aged Bishop of Bath and Wells. His 
title to orders was the parish of Kingston in that 
county, and his stipend forty pounds a year. His own 
record of his entrance into the church is in these words 
— " On Trinity Sunday, June 6th, through the kind 
and unexpected interposition of Providence, was I 
ordained by the Bishop of Bath and Wells ivithout 
any promise or coyiditwn tvhatever.'' He proceeds— 



Mr, Bouqiiet. 



91 



Tuesday, June 8th, preached my first sermon at 
Bristol in a church, for dear Mr. Rouquet, at St. Wer- 
burgh's, to a large congregation — Come out from among 
them, ^c. 2 Cor. vi, 17, 18 — somewhat assisted." 

Mr. Rouquet was one of his most valued and inti- 
mate friends. He w^as the son of a French Protestant 
refugee, whose father was condemned to the galleys for 
his religion. He was educated at Merchant Tailors' 
School, and at St. John's College, Oxford. He became, 
at the request of Wesley, the superintendent of the 
school at Kingswood near Bristol, for the education of 
the children of Methodists, and the sons of itinerant 
preachers. He was, nevertheless, ordained deacon by 
Dr. Johnson, Bishop of Gloucester, but was dismissed 
from his curacy for preaching from house to house, and 
in the gaol of Bristol. He was, notwithstanding, pre- 
sented to a vicarage by the Lord Chancellor, and or- 
dained priest by Dr. Wills, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 
who was so pleased with his examination, that although 
a strong cry of Methodist was raised against him, he 
appointed him to preach at the next ordination. His 
text was, Feed my sheep ; but the sermon drew down 
upon him such severe censures, that the bishop desired 
a copy of it might be sent him, and after having read 
it, wrote him a most affectionate letter, expressing his 
entire approbation of its doctrines, and assuring him 
of the continuance of his friendship. After this, Mr. 
Rouquet pursued his own course unhindered, and 
preached at the opening of the Tabernacle, at Trow- 
bridge, in 1771 ; and in the same place, on the anni- 
versaries of that event, till his death in 1776, without 
any notice being taken of his irregularity. 

This being the history of Mr. Rouquet, it will be 
no matter of surprise that Mr. Rowland Hill preached 



92 M7\ Rowland Hill again vidts Kingswood. 

his first sermon after ordination at St. Werburgh's, 
Bristol. The next place he visited was Kingswood, 
the scene of the singular adventure between himself 
and his brother Richard. Here he collected around 
him once more the poor ignorant colliers ; and after 
addressing them with the most affectionate earnestness, 
he proceeded to Wotton, as appears from his diary. 

" Friday, June 11th, Wotton. Onli/ fear the Lord, 
and serve him :for consider how great things the Lord 
hath done for thee, 8^c, ^c. 1 Sam. xii, 21, &c. 
Afterwards had a sacrament with my dear brother 
Joss." 

He preached once at Dursley, during his stay at 
Wotton, but soon returned to Kingswood, where he 
observes on two of his sermons, that they " were dry 
hard times — O what an unprofitable worm." Although 
he generally perceived and enjoyed a solemn effect on 
his hearers, he always felt and expressed the humblest 
conviction of his own weakness. "Oh!" he often 
exclaimed, " how much better I ought to have preached 
— Oh ! how unworthy I am to be an ambassador for 
Christ." 

One of his most frequent observations was, that he 
never remembered to have left the pulpit without a 
humble recollection of his own unworthiness. His 
ebullitions of humour and fancy while preaching, were 
often succeeded by tears of contrite sorrow, and prayers 
for deeper solemnity of mind. He had naturally a 
keen sense of the ludicrous, which seemed at times to 
spread its influence over the entire surface of his mind : 
like a vapoury cloud, floating across the face of a lumi- 
nary of the heavens, some comic idea would dim, for 
an instant, the lustre of his higher conceptions ; but on 
its passing suddenly away, his imagination shone forth 



His Jirst sermon at his curacy. 



03 



in all its splendour, and generally led him into the 
opposite expression of pathos or sublimity. This is the 
constant characteristic of his writings, as it was of his 
sermons. 

On Sunday, June 20, 1773, Mr. Rowland Hill 
preached his first sermon at his curacy from 1 Cor. 
ii, 2, 1 am determined to hiow nothing among you, 8^c., 
and spent " a comfortable day " there. He established 
a Wednesday evening lecture in his church at Kings- 
ton, but was much dissatisfied with the attendance. 
He also preached almost daily in the villages around. 
Mr. Toplady, very soon after his ordination, invited 
him to Broad Hembury, and tried to dissuade him 
from his irregularities : his remonstrances were, how- 
ever, in vain. He was, as Mr. Berridge said, " a 
comet," and his path eccentric and unconfined. He 
went on labouring in many places day after day, till 
Tuesday, August 24, when he was " taken violently 
ill with a bilious complaint, and was silenced " for a 
few days : but on getting better re-commenced his 
Herculean exertions. He met with every species of 
opposition, was lampooned, burnt in effigy, pelted, 
and threatened ; but none of these things moved him, 
or disturbed his inexhaustible flow of spirits. He 
placed his family motto, " go forward," on his seal, 
and acted on its precept. His active itinerancy greatly 
delighted his old friend Mr. Berridge, who thus begins 
a letter to him, dated Sept. 3, 1773: — "Dear Sir, 
I mean my dear Rowly, your kind letter was long 
in coming, but it brought good tidings and refreshed 
my heart. The motto of your seal rejoiced me much ; 
it gave me a peep into your bosom, and a taste of 
your letter before I read it. Indeed I was somewhat 
afraid lest orders and a * * * * would cure you of 



94 



Juetter from Mr. Berridge, 



rambling ; but my fears were groundless, and all is 
well. The lampoon published against you is a blessed 
omen for good that God intends to honour you. It 
seems to me a happy token that you will remain an 
itinerant, and that much good will arise from your 
ministry. Luther used to say^ when the Lord had 
fresh work for him, a strong tryal was always sent 
beforehand to prepare him for it by humiliation. 
Study not to be a fine preacher. Jericlios are blown 
down with ram's horns. Look simply unto Jesus for 
preaching food ; and what is wanted will be given, 
and what is given be blest, whether it be a barley or a 
wheaten loaf, a crust or a crumb. Your mouth will 
be a flowing stream, or a fountain sealed, according as 
your heart is. Avoid all controversy in preaching, 
talking, or writing ; preach nothing down but the 
devil, and nothing up but Jesus Christ." It would 
have been happy for the then existing Christian 
world, if this rule had been followed ; the painful re- 
collection would thus have been spared us, that the 
champions of the cross quarrelled in the hour of vic- 
tory, Mr. Berridge once received Mr. Fletcher with 
all the cordiality of believing love ; now he writes in 
the letter from which his advice to Mr. Hill is quoted ! 
— " Mr. Fletcher has sent me word that my pamphlet 
contains the lore of antinomianism, and that he is 
going to publish another check in answer to it. So 
he may, but he will not draw a reply from me." Of 
Fletcher it is but justice to say, that he had put away 
from him all hiUerness—^eThaps, not, however, all 
clamour. 

In the autumn of this year Mr. Rowland Hill re- 
ceived from Mr. Ryland, junior, of Northampton, 
afterwards the well-known Dr. Ryland, of Bristol, 



Fffecfs of Mr. Roicknid HiW a labour. s. 9o 

accounts of the great success which had followed his 
visit to that place and country in the spring. He 
mentions in his letter the names and religious state 
of several of his converts, and observes — If this will 
not excite you to hasten hither, I do not know what 
will." He adds, " Hervey goes on well — he supped 
here last night. Dear Mr. Newton preaches at Col- 
lingtree to-day. We have two or three godly old 
women dying : one poor lad went to Wesley's out of 
curiosity, and has been half in despair for a while 
through their falling-away doctrine." " They attend," 
he says with much candour, " at our place, except 
the fourth, whose relations at Kettering were fright- 
ened at too much predestination, too much water, 
too much methodism, and the encouragement of lay 
preachers, so they could not be easy with his coming 
to us, and he goes to Castle Hill ; but he is a very 
good lad, and goes on tmllr 

Having received a promise from the Bishop of 
Carlisle that he would ordain him priest, Mr. Row- 
land Hill obtained a letter dimissory to his lordship 
from the Bishop of Bath and Wells : but he excused 
himself, by saying that he had received an order from 
the archbishop of his province not to admit him to a 
further grade in the church, on account of his per- 
petual irregularity, and that he considered himself 
bound to obey it. Thus ended his hopes and attempts 
to get into full orders. 

This disappointment is only slightly noticed in his 
diary : — " Missing of full orders, with a letter dimis- 
sory from the Bishop of Bath and Wells to the 
Bishop of Carlisle, I thought it was my duty again to 
begin m.y public labours as usual." 

This important year Mr. Rowland Hill closed, by 



96 Is pleased when invited to a church, 

great activity, in the metropolis and its vicinity. His 
journal contains, however, scarcely any thing but the 
texts he preached from, with here and there a remark, 
as — Friday, first time at Richmond, in the old play- 
house." "Wednesday, heard of the death of my 
dear mother ; she died Friday, Dec. 17, at half-past 
eleven." My first charity sermon at St. Mary Al- 
dermary." " Dec. 31, Greenwich, a concluding sermon 
for the old year. Behold I am vile, Job xl, 4. Good 
congregations here." 

As he attracted larger numbers at this time than 
any other person, he was much pressed to preach 
charity sermons in the churches in London, invitations 
which he always accepted with great readiness ; and 
to the end of his life nothing gave him more exquisite 
pleasure than being asked to preach in a church, and 
nothing caused him such evident mortification as a re- 
fusal to allow him to officiate in an episcopal place 

of worship. He used often to say — " Good Mr. 

asked me to come and see him, but he will not let me 
preach in his church ; I go nowhere where I cannot 
preach, and I do not choose to hurt his mind by 
preaching in a meeting-house while on a visit to him." 
Sometimes, when mentioning books containing stric- 
tures on the establishment, he would exclaim — " I don't 
like that book, it is full of bigotted railing against the 
church." Nothing made him more indignant than 
being called a dissenter — " I am not," he would say ; 
" the church turned me off, and not I her— I confess I 
like a little more liberty than she allows, and, thank 
God, I can ask great Dr. Chalmers, and great Dr. 
Morrison, and others, when they come to London, to 
preach in Surry Chapel pulpit," — and then he would 
add, with his own indescribably arch look — " I sup- 



His t(}} equalled stvengiJi aotd spirits. 97 

pose they would not let St. Paul, if he was to come 
upon earth now, preach in his own cathedral : but I 
really do not think it would produce an earthquake if 
he did." He was, soon after his ordination, often 
preaching by dawn of day, and the shades of evening 
wmild close over him engaged in the same exercise, 
at a distance, perhaps, of many miles from the scene 
of his morning labours. When night came, instead 
of being tired, his spirits seemed to rise to their 
greatest height, and he allowed them full vent in the 
overflow of his animated conversation. After a day's 
exertions, which Vv'Ould have completely prostrated 
the strength of an ordinary man, he appeared uncon- 
scious of the slightest fatigue ; and when supper was 
at an end, he became unusually communicative and 
entertaining, and would tell of his preaching adven- 
tures, declare the experience of his own mind, and 
enliven the social circle with remarks and anecdotes, 
given in a manner such as those only who knew him 
in retirement can possibly conceive ; and this, perhaps, 
after four sermons preached to assembled thousands, 
with an energy of manner and power of voice of the 
most extraordinary nature. Suddenly, when all the 
party were raised to the highest pitch of interest, he 
asked what's o'clock ? " and, finding it was late, he 
would exclaim — " dearest me, only think of that — it 
is time for all Methodist preachers to be in bed, I am 
sure," — then, after his night's rest, he began the next 
day with the same ardour as ever in the service of 
God. 

He was, after his marriage, accompanied by Mrs. 
Hill on most of his preaching expeditions, and very 
cheerfully did she share in all the difficulties and pri- 
vations which attended him in his extraordinary 

H 



98 His first serrmm after his mothers decease. 

career; and never, upon any occasion, in the course 
of their union of more than half a century, placed the 
slightest obstacle in the way of what her husband con- 
sidered his positive duty as a minister of Christ. 

This year, as has been noticed in a brief quotation 
from his diary, Mr. Rowland Hill lost his mother, 
Lady Hill. No one of his family was so strongly 
opposed as she was to the course he was pursuing. 
The choice of the first text he preached from after her 
decease was remarkably characteristic of him : it was 
2 Sam. xxiii, 5 — Although my house he not so with 
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting cove- 
nant, ordered in all things and sure — an evident 
allusion to the religious differences existing between 
himself and those of his house, a circumstance well 
known to the congregation of the Tabernacle, before 
which he preached. The great secret, perhaps, of the 
amazing effect of his preaching was, its being all na- 
ture. He generally chose the subject which impressed 
and affected his own mind at the moment, and dis- 
coursed on it as he felt, not as he had previously 
thought ; and thus, on every occasion, whether joyous 
or grievous, he found his way to hearts whose strings 
vibrated in unison with those of his own. Sheridan 
used to say of him, I go to hear Rowland Hill be- 
cause his ideas come red-hot from the heart." Never 
was there a truer description of the preaching of any 
minister ; he spoke as he felt ; and the tears he shed, 
and the smiles that beamed upon his countenance, soon 
" wakened up their fellows " in the listening throng 
that heard him. After one sermon, in which he had 
poured forth the experience of his pious soul in 
expressing the exulting feelings of the Christian's joy, 
Mr. Ambrose Serle came into the vestry of Surry 



Ambrose Serle, Deaji Mihier, 



99 



Chapel, and seizing him by the hand, exclaimed — 
" Oh, my dear sir, if we are so happy now, what shall 
we be a hmidred thousand years hence in heaven ? " 
And on another occasion, Dr. IMilner, the celebrated 
Dean of Carlisle, was so worked upon, that he went to 
him and said—" Mr. Hill, Mr. Hill, 1/elt to-day— 'tis 
this slap-dasJi preaching*, say what they will, that 
does all the good." The elements of our nature re- 
main unchanged after the highest refinement and cul- 
tivation of the understanding ; and the same genuine 
feeling which touched the hearts of these highly gifted 
men in Mr. Howland HilFs riper age, was the secret 
which attracted the spell-bound multitudes who fol- 
lowed him in his youthful days. 



H 2 



100 



CHAPTER IV. 
1774. 

Mr. Rowland Hill's first sermon in the year 1774 
was at Tottenham-court chapel, on Sunday, Jan. 2 ; 
his subject, the barren fig-tree. He preached twice 
more the same day, and on the Monday he pro- 
ceeded to Berkhampstead, and after expounding, " by 
way of an opening, at Mr. Langton's," he preached in 
a church in the neighbourhood. Though every day 
at this time was filled up with preaching engagements, 
he has recorded little of them but texts and places. He 
remarks, on Thursday, January 6th, " Consecration 
day at Richmond. Morning, upon ivor shipping the 
Father in spirit and in truth, John iv, S3, 24. — After- 
wards a most blessed sacrament with Messrs. Joss and 
West. O, when shall we enjoy the like liberty at 
Tabernacle and Tottenham ! " He was much in the 
habit of seizing upon and spiritualizing the circum- 
stances around him, of which we have an instance in 
the following entry in his journal :— " Lord's day, Tot- 
tenham, upon the Laird's promise of showers of Mess- 
ings> — it was a very rainy morning." He made at 
this time frequent preaching expeditions to Richmond, 
where he received the most violent opposition. The 
first date of his going there this year is Friday, 
January 2!7th. — " Richmond, He will help the feet of 
his saints, hut the wicked shall be silent in darkness, 
for, ^c, 1 Sam. ii. — Much confusion." After entering 
in his diary the texts of every day, he remarks, 
" Thursday (February 3) dear Mr. Berridge came to 



Awful ecent. 



101 



town. I read prayers for him ; he preached most 
gloriously." Lord's day, February 6 — Noon, Rich- 
mond. Expecting much persecution in the eve, pre- 
pared for it by preaching upon, These things have I 
spoken unto you that ije might have peace ; in the world 
ye shall have tribulation, John xiv, 33. After- 
noon, went to church, and heard myself vehemently 
taken to task by the parson. Eve, contrary to all ex- 
pectation, we had a most comfortable and tranquil 
time. Unto him that loved us and washed Ills'] from 
our sins in his oivn blood, Rev. i, 5, 6. Afterwards 
a sacrament ; dear JMr. West assisted. I trust the 
Lord was with us — blessed be God, we concluded with 
victory." On one occasion an attempt had been made 
to persuade him not to go to Richmond, because a 
party of young men had hired a boat, and were coming 
down the river with the determination to draw him 
through the water. His feelings may be conceived, 
when informed the boat was upset, and that the poor 
misguided enemies of his ministry had all entered into 
the presence of their Judge in another world. 

The next scenes of Mr. Rowland Hill's labours 
were Chatham and Sheerness ; and on his return 
from those places to London he preached " The last 
Sermon at St. Catherine's, near the Tower, upon Job's 
repentance." On Sunday, February 27, he preached 
at the Tabernacle, and on Monday he says — took 
my leave of the chapel society.— Tuesday, general 
sacrament. At " chapel Mr. Joss assisted for the first 
time. Blessed be God, thousands communicated ; it 
lasted from six till ten." His journal proceeds, " After 
a tedious journey arrived safe at Rodborough on 
Saturday, March 5th. Lord, help. Lord's-day morn. — 
Rodborough : a very tempestuous day, A man shall 



102 



Gloucester, Wiltshire, Wales. 



he a hiding-place from the stoinn, 8^c., Isa. xxxii, 2 — 
afterwards a sacrament. Eve, same place. Ye have not 
cJwsen me, but I have chosen you, and have ordained 
you, John xv, 19 — a good congregation, but a 
dryish time. I believe good will be done here. My 
Master, help." We have, in his first text mentioned 
in this extract, an instance of the habit not long ago 
alluded to. He goes on, " Monday, March 7th, 
Wotton. The believer built upon the rock, Tues- 
day, Dursley. The Lord the strength, fortress, and 
refuge of the afflicted'' — and the next Tuesday, he 
adds, " went and saw my dear sick father." On his 
return he went to Gloucester, and preached and read 
prayers twice at the hospital : " the last a blessed 
time, but O poor dead Gloucester, how few think it 
worth their while to hear!" From Gloucester he re- 
turned to Wotton, and after preaching there and in 
the neighbourhood, he made a tour through Wiltshire, 
at the end of which he observes, " blessed be God, a 
happy journey through Wiltshire." After this he 
spent a short time at Bristol, and then went into 
Wales. While at Bristol, one entry in his diary is 
" Tuesday, St. Nicholas; there being a violent thunder- 
storm at that time, preached upon A man being a 
covert from the storm, Isa. xxxii, 2." On his way 
into Wales he preached at " a blessed consecration of 
an old barn in the morning, on preparing a habitation 
for the LiOrdr Mr. Rowland Hill was also in the 
habit of speaking frequently in the open air, making 
what he called " his field campaigns," and used to go 
into large towns on the market days, and address 
assemblages in the market houses, of which he has 
briefly recorded several instances. When he heard of 
a fair or a revel, he would go and try to gain a hear- 



Anecdote of Howel Harris. 



103 



ing, in spite of all the violence with which he was con- 
stantly assailed. On such occasions his favourite text 
was, Come out from among fhem^ which he often 
so applied to the consciences of those who gathered 
round him, that some, convinced of the evil of their 
course, would retire home, to seek, in penitential 
prayer, the Saviour to whom they had been so feelingly 
invited. Many, very many, were the instances of con- 
version which attended, on such opportunities, his 
solemn warnings to the riotous assemblies congregated 
at these scenes of vice and iniquity. 

Several times in the course of his journey through 
Wales this year, events of a similar description oc- 
curred, which greatly encouraged and supported him 
under an attack of illness ; upon which he remarks, 
" my body quite weak, but my soul was refreshed." 
A like example had been previously before his eyes 
in the case of Howel Harris, one of Mr. Whitefield's 
most energetic followers, and a man of extraordinary 
powers of body and mind. Harris used to relate of 
himself, that being once on a journey through Wales, 
his mind was agitated by great temptations to desert 
his Master's cause, when he said, " Satan, I'll match 
thee for this" — and " so I did," he used to add ; " for 
I had not ridden many miles before I came to a revel, 
where there was a show of mountebanks, which I 
entered, and just as they were commencing, I jumped 
into the midst of them and cried out ' let us pray,' 
which so thunderstruck them that they listened to me 
quietly, while I preached them a most tremendous 
sermon that frightened many of them home." Our 
young itinerant greatly delighted in this anecdote, and 
often considered that amidst somewhat similar scenes, 
he had been enabled successfully to assail the kingdom 



104 



Jumpers. 



of Satan. The number of sermons he preached during 
his tour in Wales, in the year 1774, was astonishing ; 
at least three, and sometimes four a day, and none of 
less continuance than an hour. The Welsh people 
followed him by thousands from place to place, and he 
has often said that nothing could prevent their attend- 
ance. Many a time has he stood during a shower of 
rain, preaching to a vast concourse of peasantry, who 
remained as unconcerned and attentive as though the 
sky had been without a cloud. He often used to men- 
tion this to his English hearers, when the weather had 
kept them at home on the sabbath. " If," he would 
say, you loved the gospel as the W^elsh do, you 
would not mind a shower." Nothing, however, made 
him so angry as the enthusiasm of the jumpers, whom 
he called caricaturists of religion. Once, moved by 
the energy of his manner, numbers of them rose in 
the chapel and began to jump ; he cried aloud, " let us 
have no more of this mummery and nonsense." Not- 
withstanding this rebuke, as Mrs. Hill and he were 
sitting together in the inn, two men asked to speak 
to him about his sermon ; but on entering the room 
they began to jump like madmen. " If you will have 
such nonsense you may have it to yourselves," he said 
quietly, and retired till the jumpers went away. He 
could not endure any thing bordering on fanaticism ; 

this," he used to say, " is not the fine, sublime, gentle, 
yet irresistible work of the Holy Ghost on the soul, 
which makes us not fanatics and enthusiasts, but new 
creatures in Christ Jesus." 

Whilst on the last-mentioned expedition, the absent 
minister was not forgotten by his London friends. A 
long letter from Captain Joss, which reached him in 
his travels, describes the condition of his hearers in the 



Kemarkahle conv ersions . 



105 



metropolis and its neighbourhood. " You ask," he 
says, " if I can tell you any gospel news ? Yes, my 
dear brother, glory be to our dear Emmanuel, his word 
runs and is glorified. You have need to be greatly 
humbled before the Lord ; for it may be said in truth 
respecting you, what Gideon said ironically concerning 
the men of Ephraim, Judges viii, 2, Is not the glean- 
ing of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage 
of Ahiezer f Your last visit has been remarkably blest ; 
many have been awakened, several of which have 
joined the society. I shall mention one very remark- 
able instance which came to my knowledge last Satur- 
day, from the person^s own mouth. A young lady 
came to hear you out of curiosity, when it pleased the 
Lord to call her, I believe savingly. She was greatly 
persecuted by an elder brother, who was head of the 
family, as the mother is a widow : however, by her 
patience and conversation she was made the means of 
the conversion of a sister, and that sister of another, 
and she of the conversion of the aged mother ; and 
who knows but the Lord may save the brother also ? 
Thus the Lord gives them you by clusters : no wonder 
you meet with so much ballast ; you would overset 
without it. A ship that is built for war, requires a 
great quantity of ballast to counterpoise her metal 
which she carries upon her upper deck. Things at 
Tabernacle and chapel ^ are just as you left them, only 
I have not been at chapel sacrament since the first time 
with you." 

Towards the end of this long letter the worthy 
sailor adds — " The Lord triumphs at Richmond, and 
persecution runs high. The different times I hove 

'■' Tottenham-court chapel and the Tabernacle, Moorfielcls. 



106 Trevecca. 

them, we have been stoned, covered with dirt out of 
the kennel, &c." Little do we know, in these days of 
tranquillity and peace, what zealous revivalists had to 
suffer from the violence of mobs, as well as from the 
contempt of men of the world, who despised their per- 
sons and avoided their society. 

In the course of this summer's tour, Mr. Rowland 
Hill visited and preached at Lady Huntingdon's col- 
lege at Trevecca, on 2 Cor. xii, 10, When I am weak, 
then I am strong, a text he was very fond of, " be- 
cause," he observed, " no one but a Christian could un- 
derstand its meaning ;" in proof of which he would 
add, " a worldly-wise divine absolutely said, * I am sure 
that fellow Whitefield is mad now, for I heard him say 
with my own ears, when I am weak, then I am strong' 
O how certain is it, that none can comprehend the 
word of God, but by the aid of the enlightening influ- 
ences of the Holy Ghost."' It was at Trevecca that the 
first opposition arose to the declaration of Wesley, in 
the celebrated conference of 1775. Lady Huntingdon 
ordered all those who refused to disavow the doctrines 
contained in its minutes,^ immediately to leave the 
Welsh college. Mr. Fletcher, the superintendent, 

' The parts of these minutes, so strongly objected to, have been often published, 
and, therefore, it is unnecessary to introduce them at length here. The passages 
which were most condemned, as tending to support the doctrine of salvation by works^ 
were these — " We said, in 1774, ' we have leaned too much towards Calvinism.' 
Wherein ? 

"1. With regard to man's faithfulness. Our Lord himself taught us to use the 
expression, and we ought never to be ashamed of it. We ought steadily to assert, 
on his authority, that if a man is not ^ faithful in the unrighteous mammon,' God 
will not give him the true riches. 

" 2. With regard to working for life. This also our Lord has expressly com- 
manded us. Labour, IpyaZja^e, literally, ' work for the meat that endureth to ever- 
lasting life.' And, in fact, every believer, till he comes to glory, works /or, as well 
as from., life. 

" 3. We have received it as a maxim, that ' a man is to do nothing in order to 
justification.' Nothing can be more false. Whoever desires to find favour with 
God, should ' cease to do evil, and learn to do well.' Whoever repents, should ' do 
works meet for repentance.' And if this is not in order to find favour, what does he 
do them for ? " 



Wesley an controversy . 



107 



being called upon to give his sentiments in writing on 
these points without reserve, admitted that the word- 
ing of the minutes was unguarded and inexplicit ; but 
after explaining them in his own way, he vindicated 
and approved the doctrines they contained, and resigned 
his appointment. Wesley's next conference was held 
at Bristol, where his adherents were met by a sort of 
anti-council, summoned by the Honourable Walter 
Shirley, one of Lady Huntingdon's chaplains, who 
manifested a most conciliatory spirit on the occasion. 
In this he was met by the leader of the Methodists, 
who acknowledged that certain expressions in the 
minutes, which gave rise to the dispute, were unguarded 
as to working for salvation, and that they had no 
" merit or confidence but in the alone merits of our 
Lord Jesus Christ for justification or salvation, either 
in life, death, or the day of judgment ; and though no 
one is a real Christian believer (and consequently can- 
not be saved) who doth not good works, where there is 
time and opportunity, yet our works have no part in 
meriting or purchasing our justification either in whole 
or in part." This declaration appeared to satisfy 
Wesley's opponents, and the meeting was concluded 
with prayer and mutual professions of brotherly love. 
The result also of the conference was made known to 
the world. 

This calm unhappily lasted but a short time : the 
old question was raised again, and the dispute was 
carried on with more violence than ever. Numerous 
pamphlets were published on both sides, and to the 
arguments contained in them, were added the keenest 
ridicule and the strongest possible invective. Mr. 
Richard Hill wrote a great deal upon the subject; 
and his brother Rowland, with Messrs. Toplady, Ber- 



108 



Blameahle spirit. 



ridge, and Hervey, entered into the same arena. The 
titles of some of these productions were singular 
enough, Fai^rago double distilled — Aii old fox tarred 
and feathered, alluding to Wesley — Pope John — Juo- 
gica Genevensis — The finishing stroke, and others of 
the same character ; and it is but justice to the excel- 
lent subject of these pages to remark, that in his 
maturer age, though still retaining his views as to the 
doctrines he opposed, he lamented that the controversy 
had not been carried on in a different spirit. It has 
been often asserted, that the pamphlets and other pub- 
lications on the part of Wesley and his followers were 
models of temper and forbearance, while those written 
by the Hills and their adherents abounded in invective 
and abuse. Mr. Rowland Hill shall here speak for 
himself. He excused his severity of expression by a 
quotation from Cicero — " ut ad urendiim et secandum 
medici, sic nos ad hoc genus castigandi raro invitique 
veniamus, nec unquam nisi necessario si nulla reperie- 
tur alia medicina." This was the motto of a pamphlet 
in which he says, " however I may lament the many 
harsh terms that made their appearance in the last 
pamphlet, yet I think Mr. J. Wesley has but very little 
reason to complain, when we review the following spe- 
cimen of some of the mild epithets which these two 
meek and loving gentlemen, Messrs. John and Charles 
Wesley, have conjointly given to the Calvinists : — 
devil's factors — Satan's synagogues — children of the 
old roaring hellish murderer who believe his lie — ad- 
vocates for sin — witnesses for the father of lies — 
blasphemers — Satan-sent preachers— devils — liars — 
fiends. These terms are taken out of different poems 
composed by those gentlemen, all of which, if I greatly 
mistake not, are still upon sale." Wesley's biographer, 



Blnweahle spirit. 



109 



Watson, a great and good man, surely was not aware 
of these expressions when he called the pviblications of 
his party " models of temper, and calm but occasionally 
powerful reproving." These epithets would never 
have been quoted here, had it not been too often in- 
sinuated that the acid was all on one side. Can any 
thing justify Wesley in setting forth an analysis of 
Toplady's Treatise on Predestination in these words ? 
— " The sum of all this — one in twenty (suppose) of 
mankind are elected ; nineteen in tw^enty are repro- 
bated. The elect shall be saved, do what they will ; 
the reprobate shall be damned, do what they can. 
Reader, believe this, or be damned. Witness my hand, 
A. T." — Certain it is that Mr. Rowland Hill and 
his friends held no doctrine such as this ; never did 
persons more freelij invite all to come to Christ, nor 
have any preachers, since the days of the Apostles, 
been more practical in their doctrines or holier in their 
lives. Mr. Hill passed through a life extended to 
almost eighty-nine years, without a speck to stain his 
moral character ; in this I'espect his sun careered in a 
cloudless sky, and sunk in celestial brightness into a 
world of glory. It is only to be lamented that the 
combatants did not meet instead of writing. They 
were inflamed by constant m.isrepresentations, which 
lost nothing in passing from one to another. When 
they did meet, their mutual religion generally awakened 
a comm.on love towards each other. When Toplady 
saw Olivers, one of his most acute antagonists, whom 
he had ridiculed in verse and attacked in prose, all his 
anger seemed to cease. " To say the truth," he writes, 
" I am glad I saw Mr. Olivers, for he appears to be a 
person of stronger sense and better behaviour than I 
had imagined." Mr. Rowland Hill, with admirable 



110 



Mr. Roivland HilVs candour. 



candour, says of his own writings, " a softer style and 
spirit would better have become me ; " and this would 
have undoubtedly been the case had he met and con- 
versed with his opponents. He also wrote to London 
and Bristol to forbid the sale of one of his severest 
publications, part of which, addressed privately to a 
friend, had been printed without his consent: — " Thus," 
says he, " have I done my utmost to prevent the evil 
that might arise from any wrong touches of the ark of 
God." 

It is impossible not to notice in this volume, a con- 
troversy in which both the brothers Richard and Row- 
land Hill appeared so prominent ; and the quotations 
given from the writings of the latter will, it is trusted, 
prove that he had the candoar to censure the spirit in 
which, heated by polemical excitement, he had written 
upon such mysterious and hallowed subjects. The 
cause was the Lord's ; but the armour in v^hich both 
parties came into the field was not selected from the 
panoply of light. They therefore turned their weapons 
against each other, and forgot, for a period, the effect 
of such a spectacle on the enemies of their common 
salvation. Let the case be fairly stated, the faults on 
both sides be acknowledged, and may the remembrance 
of them serve as a warning to those who treat upon 
religious differences. Let us give credit to both parties 
for integrity of principle ; and let Calvinist and 
Arminian join in one common acknowledgment, that 
they never should have sought God by nature, had he 
not first sought them by grace ; that the only way to 
eternal life is through the all-sufficient atonement of a 
dying Saviour ; and the only evidence of our interest 
in his blood, a heart sanctified by his Spirit, and a life 
dedicated to his glory. 



Wottofi. 



Ill 



From Trevecca, where we left him to make this 
digression, Mr. Rowland Hill returned to Wot ton, 
after, in some measure, a happy ramble through 
Wales," and immediately visited, day after day, all the 
scenes of his former labours in Gloucestershire. There 
he had erected his house and a chapel, called the Ta- 
heriiacle, in one of the most romantic situations that 
can be conceived, and very suitable to the complexion 
of a mind exceedingly alive to the picturesque beauties 
of nature. The celebrated Robert Hall once paid him 
a visit at Wotton, and said of it — " Sir, it is the most 
paradisaical spot I was ever in." Strong as was the 
expression, he did not say too much. Opposite the 
house is the most perfect amphitheatre of hill, three 
parts of which is clothed with a hanging wood, of ex- 
quisite variety of foliage, enclosing a dale of the richest 
fertility. The summit of a hill on the left of the house 
commands a landscape on which nature has lavished 
her choicest attractions. The Welsh mountains, the 
Malvern hills, the green vale of Berkeley, the broad 
course of the silvery and majestic Severn, and a fore- 
ground of grassy knolls and hanging woods, form the 
principal features of a scene in which all are blended in 
the loveliest harmony and proportions. In front of 
the house, a rocky path winding through a sloping 
wood of beech, breaks it with its white and narrow 
streaks into clusters of great beauty and variety. On 
the sabbath this road teemed with human beings, 
coming from the lovely glens around to hear the word 
of life from the lips of their beloved minister. About 
half an hour before service, he might be seen watching 
through a telescope his approaching flock as they de- 
scended into the valley, and making his remarks to 
those near him on the seriousness or levity of their 



112 



Increasing congregations. 



manner. Sometimes he gave a hint of the latter in his 
sermon, and they who were conscious of its application 
wondered how he knew it. Some of them used to say, 
" we must mind what we do, for Master Hill knows 
every thing, bless him." 

But to resume the narrative. The unwearied tra- 
veller went from Wotton to Bristol and Bath, where 
he was followed by congregations " larger than ever." 
" After three years' absence" he visited Devizes, and 
returned to Bristol, where he preached to great multi- 
tudes, both in places of worship and out of doors." 
In his journey to London he passed through Worcester, 
Gloucester, and Birmingham, where he met with such 
a reception as gave him " much cause for thankfulness 
and joy." His route was very circuitous, and extended 
to the potteries in Staffordshire. He spent also a short 
time at Coventry and Northampton, and was much 
encouraged by his affectionate reception and the crowds 
who flocked to hear him. Preaching all the way as 
he journeyed, he at length reached London on the 6th 
of August. Here he at once resumed his labours, as 
appears from his journal. " London, Lord's-day morn, 
August 7 an excellent sacrament at the Tabernacle. 
Afterwards preached in the same place to an over- 
flowing congregation : Behold I set hefore thee an 
open door. Eve, to a vast multitude in White Con- 
duit Fields : Fathe7\ forgive them, for they know not 
what they do evidently in allusion to the opposition 
he met with. Not a day followed without a sermon ; 
and on the Monday week after the last date, he 
preached at " Whetstone, on Christ's name being as 
ointment poured forth. Afterwards, a primitive feast, 
made sweet by prayer, singing, and exhortation. Af- 
terwards expounded part of the 1st of Solomon's Song 



Death of Mr. Powys. 



113 



in the field. Tuesday, intended to have preached in 
London Fields. Prevented by rain ; met society in 
the Tabernacle." The scenes of his ministry at this 
time were places of all kinds ; churches, chapels, fields, 
gardens, the streets — in short, everywhere that he 
could obtain a hearing, every day of his life, and with 
great effect. One entry in his little diary at this time 
is — " Saturday, met society, and gave a general ex- 
hortation. Many this eve came to me under soul 
concern. Blessed be God, the work of grace still is 
carried on upon the hearts of many." On " Lord's- 
day, September 11th," he " concluded in London. 
Morn, chapel, on the great mountain, a plain before 
Zerubbabel. Eve, Tabernacle : Thine , O Lord, is the 
greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the 
victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heaven 
and the earth is thine : thine is the kingdom, O Lord, 
and thou art exalted head above all: 1 Chron. xxix, 11. 
On the same day £200 was collected for the public 
cause of Christ. The congregations in London con- 
tinue as large if not larger than ever. A divine power 
in general went with the word. Most enlarged this 
time at Tottenham, and in the churches." From 
London Mr. Hill went into Gloucestershire, where he 
seems, from his diary, scarcely to have missed preaching 
a single day till his return to the metropolis in Decem- 
ber, where he concluded the labours of the year. 

During the year 1T74 Mr. Hill had the misfortune 
to lose his friend, Mr. Powys, of Berwick, whose death 
he felt very severely ; the more so as there were but 
very few, in his own sphere of life, who appreciated 
his views of religion or approved his zeal. There was, 
however, one individual in particular, for whom he 
cherished the sincerest affection and regard. This was 

I 



114 



Lord Bar ham. 



the excellent Sir Charles Middleton, afterwards well 
known as Lord Barham, whose management of the 
navy when First Lord of the Admiralty, in times of 
unequalled difficulty, will ever be mentioned to his 
honour in the pages of British history. His wise and 
prompt services were commended in the highest terms 
by Lord Nelson ; and the navy of England reached the 
acme of immortal fame, when a man, ridiculed as a 
saint and a methodist, presided over its affairs. Let 
this for ever silence those who assert that religion in- 
capacitates for the uses of this life. But another point 
deserves to be mentioned. Lord Barham permitted no 
Sunday labour in the dock-yards ; yet he managed to 
comply with the urgent and rapid demands of the hero 
of the deep, whose circumstances and uncommon move- 
ments required no ordinary energy in the supply of his 
resources. Neither nations nor individuals will ever 
lose by the entire dedication of that sacred day to the 
worship of a God who prospers those who serve him, 
and obey his commandments. When Lord Barham 
retired, in a good old age, to his seat in Kent, Mr. Row- 
land Hill paid him an annual visit. The affectionate 
and venerable old man often came to the door to wel- 
come his arrival ; and Mr. Hill used to say, nothing 
cheered him more " than to see the silvery locks and 
heavenly smiles of the good old lord" as he stood to 
receive him under the portico of the house at Barham 
court. This visit appeared to give these attached and 
truly Christian friends the sincerest mutual pleasure : 
they had known each other when they first set out in 
the paths of religion, and were drawing to the close of 
their pilgrimage, rejoicing in the light that had led 
them all the way. 

Mr. Rowland Hill commenced the year 1775 at 



Love Feasts. Sailors. 



115 



Woburn. His first sermon in London was in Alders- 
gate church. He was very regular in his attendance 
at the meetings of the society and classes at the 
Tabernacle. He also attended some " Love Feasts^''' 
which seem to have afforded him no great satisfaction ; 
for he remarks on the first meeting of the kind this 
year, " Wednesday, a love feast at the Tabernacle ; 
tolerable for a love feast." In the month of February 
he went to Brighton, where he spent about a fortnight 
in diligent preaching, and in gathering and forming 
societies of Christians. He then paid a visit to Ports- 
mouth, which occupied him till the end of the month. 
He had the greatest pleasure in labouring amongst 
sailors, and generally found his way to their hearts 
and affections. Many a sturdy tar that denounced his 
opening address with an oath, before the close of his 
solemn appeal had melted into tears ; and often did 
they fill the eye and drop down the rough cheek of 
some veteran, who, till touched with a recital of the 
Saviour's love and sufferings, seemed as hard and sap- 
less as the oak which bore him on the bosom of that 
ocean, where, without a thought of judgment or 
eternity, he had sternly perilled his life in the service 
of his country. Frequently did Mr. Hill experience 
the no very gentle grasp of some sailor's hand who 
had been brought to a knowledge of the way of life 
by a sermon he had come to sneer at and oppose. Of 
his visits to seaports he used to say, " I was most 
affected by those who came about me and told me in 
tears that I had led them to Christ the last time I was 
there ; this always touches me." When they abused, 
pelted, and threatened him, he stood calm, and un- 
moved ; his countenance, capable of almost every ex- 
pression, never assumed that of fear : but as soon as 

I 2! 



Anecdote. 



ever a 2:)erson told him, in a way that removed all 
suspicion, of his having been the means of bringing 
him to God, he could never suppress his emotion. 
His courage, at all times remarkable, often awed his 
most violent opposers, and on one occasion frightened 
away two or three highwaymen, which probably gave 
rise to the foolish story of his taking a robber into his 
service. He was riding in a phaeton somewhere near 
London, accompanied by Mrs. Hill, when they were 
attacked in the dark by either two or three men, who 
violently demanded their money. They had a few 
minutes previously made a successful attack upon a 
Mr. Whitefoot, his assistant, who preceded them in a 
gig. When they came to Mr, Rowland Hill, and he 
used to laugh heartily as he told the story, he set up 
such a tremendous unearthly shout, that one of them 
cried out, " we have stopped the devil by mistake, 
and had better be off" — ^on which they ran away and 
left him and his lady in peaceable possession of the 
road. He used to say, " I stood up in the carriage 
and made all the outrageous noises I could think of, 
which frightened the fellows out of their wits, and 
away they scampered." 

During this year Mr. Rowland Hill preached at 
many places in Kent without much opposition, but had 
to encounter a desperate tumult, raised by a rabble in 
the street, at Maidstone. He briefly notices it — 
" Thursday (March 24th) Maidstone— fa7i is in 
Ms hand, he will thoroughly purge his floor. Some 
persecution ; people still within, but in a tumult with- 
out — in tumults often'' At Chatham his reception 
was quite the reverse of this, so that he remarks, 
" uncommon sweetness at Chatham." As his engage- 
ments multiplied, he grew weary of keeping a regular 



A notice from the imlpit. 



117 



diary of his preaching, and says in one place — " from 
hence to my departure from London omitted to put 
down in order." After merely mentioning as far as 
he could recollect, the texts he had preached upon, he 
adds, " Wednesday, April 19, 1775, after a long stay 
in and about London of four months, after some 
blessings, and many humblings, set out for Gloucester- 
shire, and reaching Reading on that evening, preached 
in the Independent meeting, Unto Mm that hath loved 
— Thursday, Newbury, in the meeting-house, 
on being perfect through Christ's comeliness put 
upon us." 

On Saturday, April 22nd, he reached Wotton, and 
remained there till June 24th, preaching almost daily. 
His retirement into the country was no repose to 
him ; he preached as often there as in London. On a 
Sunday, after the service of his chapel at Wotton, he 
would give out such a notice as this : 

To-morrow evening meet the society." " Any 
body here from Nibley?" — (a nod of assent.) " Tell 
them I shall preach there Tuesday — Wednesday, 
preach here— Thursday, Wickwar — Friday, Uley — 
Saturday, must have some rest — Sunday, here again, 
God willing." After this notice he not unfrequently 
forgot the places where he intended to go, when 
Mrs. Hill's accuracy was of no slight service in aiding 
his memory. He often said at breakfast " where am 
I to preach to-day?" — and fortunate it was for him- 
self and the people, that she had not forgotten the 
detail of his arrangements. 

He had great reason to rejoice in the consistent 
lives and zealous devotion to God of many of his con- 
verts at Wotton. There was amongst them a person 
named Rugg, of a piety so deep and of a life so 



118 



Mr. Rowland HilVs gardener. 



useful and unblemished, that even his enemies admired 
and were awed by his character. His attached pastor 
used to say of him, that he was one of the most com- 
plete Christians he ever met with. He has been, how- 
ever, mentioned here, because he was connected with 
an extraordinary fact, illustrative of God's care of his 
own people. A man who worked in Mr. Hill's garden 
at Wotton, and was supposed to have forsaken a life 
of sin, under the influence of religion, was at length 
discovered to have been the perpetrator of several 
burglaries, and other daring robberies in the neigh- 
bourhood, though he had not, till caught in the fact, 
been ever suspected. He was tried at Gloucester, con- 
demned, and executed. It need scarcely be said that 
his employer visited him in gaol. During his inter- 
views with him there, he confessed the many crimes of 
which he had been guilty. " How was it, William," 
he inquired, " that you never robbed me, when you 
have had such abundant opportunity?" " Sir," re- 
plied he, " do you recollect the juniper bush on the 
border against the dining-room ? — I have many times 
hid under it at night, intending, which I could easily 
have done, to get into the house and plunder it- — but, 
sir, I was afraid ; something said to me, he is a man 
of God, it is a house of prayer — if I break in there I 
shall surely be found out — so I never could pluck up 
courage to attempt it." In another conversation he 
told him, " Sir, I well knew that old Mr. Rugg was 
in the habit of carrying a deal of money in his pocket ; 
times and times have I hid behind the hedge of the 
lane leading to his house — he has passed within a 
yard of me, when going home from the prayer meeting, 
again and again — I could not stir — I durst not touch 
so holy a man, I was afraid. I always began 



His unwearied diligence. 



119 



trembling as soon as he came near me, and gave up the 
thought altogether, for I knew he was a holy man." 
This is a fact which well assures us that God our sun 
is a shield too. 

In the year 1775, orchards, commons, gardens, 
churches, chapels, woods, hills and dales, were the 
varied scenes of Mr. Rowland Hill's daily exertions. 
Every now and then there appears also an entry in his 
diary, of a sermon at Kingston, his curacy, but there 
is no record of the time when he finally left it. On 
visiting this place in his declining days, he was much 
affected at meeting several old people, who told him 
they had been brought to God under his youthful 
ministry there, and that they were drawing to the end 
of their long pilgrimage, supported by the principles 
he had been the means of instilling into their minds. 
He made this year a tour through a large part of 
Devonshire, where his ministry produced a most 
powerful effect, and spent a whole fortnight in great 
activity at Plymouth, Thence he proceeded to Laun- 
ceston, and preached in the town hall, and, to use his 
own words, " Saturday (no date, but it was in July), 
reached Bideford — the dissenting minister refused the 
pulpit before I asked for it — expounded thrice, and 
preached in the market-place." Here he says " God's 
word ran, and was glorified." On his return from this 
tour he remained at Wotton, till August 21st, when 
he set off for London, preaching every day on the 
journey. On his arrival in the metropolis he had the 
satisfaction to experience no diminution either in the 
number or the affection of his followers. 



120 



CHAPTER V. 

Remarkable co7iversw7is. 
1775. 

During his residence in London, Mr. Rowland Hill 
not only preached in various places of worship, but 
expounded in families. He was in the habit of going 
occasionally for this purpose to the house of Lord 
Robert Manners, between whose accomplished lady 
and Mrs. Hill there existed a long and sincere friend- 
ship. 

He received, while in the metropolis in the year 
1775, the usual tidings of the success of his itinerancy. 
On one of the letters conveying this information is 
written, " good news from Bideford," in allusion to an 
account which it contains of the remarkable conversion 
of an individual who had been a notorious opposer 
of the truth. Indeed, sir," says his correspondent, 
" there seems to be a lasting impression left on the 
minds of many ; and as for Mr. — — , the man I before 
mentioned, it does my soul good to converse with him; 
and the order of his house is turned upside down, 
from a prayerless family to a praying one." From 
Northampton Mr. Ryland, junior, sent him, in a long 
letter, a list of persons converted under his ministry in 
that place, during three visits, with remarks on their 
cases and progress in religion. These were very 
encouraging, and were some of them instances of the 
power of God in rescuing, by the instrumentality of 
his word, even those who appeared to be buried in the 



Societas Evangelica. Penitent. 



121 



most hopeless depths of ignorance and sin. Mr. Ryland 
concludes by observing, " upon the whole, my dearest 
sir, I think you and we have vast reason to be thankful 
that God blessed you so gloriously among us : and 
I hope the Lord will make it a mean of endearing 
Northampton to you, and of inducing you to visit us 
oftener." 

During the latter part of this year Mr. Hill divided 
his time between London and Bristol. He left the 
latter city at Christmas, to assist in forming in London 
a society, called " Societas Evangelical' whose object 
was to help settled ministers to itinerate in their im- 
mediate districts. No other particular event seems to 
have occurred to him at this time : he pursued a 
regular course of daily preaching and labouring in his 
Master's cause, and opposition seemed gradually to 
decrease. He even received letters acknowledging the 
deep concern of the writers at having harboured an 
unkind thought of his motives, or used an opprobrious 
expression towards his person. One of them says — 
" I most ardently, most zealously, most sincerely ask 
your pardon for the many unknown offences towards 
you, for the opprobrious and scurrilous language, for 
the most bitter invectives with which I have treated 
your name and person, and for the trouble I give you 
in this my prolix epistle ; and likewise beg of you, in 
the name of the Holy One of Israel, to offer up your 
prayers for me, if you can possibly think me worthy ; 
and in requital for so great a blessing you shall possess 
mine, not only with my lips, but with my heart." 
Notices also were perpetually placed in his hands as 
he was entering the pulpit, containing similar penitent 
acknowledgments, and desiring that public confession 
might be made to that effect. There were also often 



122 



Notices in the pulpit. 



given him, just as he was preparing to preach, slips of 
paper, containing instances of conversions and of awful 
judgments, that he might make allusions to them in his 
sermons. Several of these were preserved by Mr. Hill, 
and were labelled "notices given me in the pulpit." 
The following is one of them : — " Dear sir, for your 
encouragement I send you this, not to exalt you, but 
to lay you low at the feet of Christ Jesus. A man of 
a small fortune married a young woman with a little 
money. In a few years, through their extravagance, 
they spent all they had, which drove him to such ways 
which made him a terror to his wife and father-in-law, 
the latter of which he was determined to murder, and 
he set out last summer on a Sunday with a full deter- 
mination to do it. Agoing cross White Conduit Fields 
while you were preaching, he stopped to hear you, and 
the Lord pleased to set the word home with power, 
and it entered into his very soul, and the lion became 
a lamb from that very moment. The Lord showed 
him what a devil he was ; so that his heart of stone 
became a heart of flesh, and he is now become the best 
of husbands, the best of fathers, and the best of sons- 
in-law ; and as he was a terror to the neighbourhood, 
he is now become a wonder to all, and his father-in- 
law says he must be in a trance. I only send you 
this account, which you may indeed depend upon, and 
may the Lord encourage you still to go on — Amen. 
Be clothed with humility." When these notices were 
given him he used generally to read them aloud ; and 
once an impudent fellow placed a piece of paper on the 
reading-desk, just before he was going to read prayers. 
He took it, and began — " The prayers of this congre- 
gration are desired — umph — for — umph — well, I sup- 
pose I must finish what I have begun— ^/or the 



Characteristic anecdote. 



123 



Rev, Roicland Hill, that he will not go riding about 
in his carriage on a Sunday!'' This would have 
disconcerted almost any other man : but he looked up 
as coolly as possible and said—" If the writer of this 
piece of folly and impertinence is in the congregation, 
and will go into the vestry after service, and let me 
put a saddle on his back, I will ride him home instead 
of going in my carriage."^ He then went on with the 
service as if nothing had happened. 

New year's day, 1776, found this zealous labourer 
in London, employed in the foundation of the society 
last alluded to. In February, as appears from an 
extract in his brief journal, he left London — after, 
upon the whole, seeing the happy establishment of 
Societas Ev angelica, returned about the beginning of 
February to Gloucestershire ; preached at Wotton on 
the following subjects." Here follow merely his texts, 
without any remarks. After labouring with his usual 
diligence in Gloucestershire for a short time, he paid a 
visit to his family at Hawkstone, to which he makes 
no other allusion than this : " During my stay at 
Hawkstone, preached on the following subjects : — At 
Weston, before my father. They that despised Moses' 
law, perished without mercy, ^c. Eve, Moses lifting 
up the serpent in the wilderness''' He remained with 
Sir Rowland Hill till the 6th of May, when he 
returned to London, preaching daily on his road. 
Vast crowds followed him every where, particularly to 
hear him out of doors at Blackheath, and other places 
in and near the metropolis. 

After his summer labours in London, Mr. Rowland 

' I once told him this story, and asked him if it was true — "Aye, that it is," he 
said, " true enough — you know I could not call him a donkey in plain terms out of 
the reading desk." 



124 Letter of Sir H, Trelawny. 



Hill returned to Wottoii, where he remained, diligent 
as usual, till September, when he departed on a long 
preaching excursion into Wales, and returned by way 
of Bristol. While at Bristol he made a journey to 
Taunton, to meet Sir Harry Trelawny, a young baronet 
from Oxford, and " found him," he says, " to all 
appearance, a most amiable and devoted youth." When 
Sir Harry was awakened to a sense of religion does 
not appear ; but it is certain that he had become a 
very zealous revivalist, and his opinions and efforts 
drew down upon him the displeasure of the heads of 
his college. He was most anxious for this interview 
with Mr. Hill, and accompanied him to Mr. Tudway's, 
at Wells, where they had much conversation upon the 
subject of religion, as well as consultations on the 
means of promoting its revival. Soon after they 
parted. Sir Harry wrote his newly-acquired friend a 
letter, which will illustrate the nature of their inter- 
course, and the position of the writer with regard to 
Oxford. 

Bridshed, Nov, 27, 177C. 
MY EVER AND VERY DEAR BROTHER, 

I am this evening, through the rich, free, 
and undeserved mercy of our triune covenant God, 
arrived safe at home. 

Oh ! my dear friend, since I left you I know still 
more how I loved you. I seemed as if I had not my 
coat on when I rode away from Wells. I have not 
passed waking hours^ I believe, without reflecting 
upon you, and that not without desires of again 
taking sweet counsel with you and walking in the 
house of God as friends. 

Indeed, I love you so much that I have been afraid 
that the Lord would make a breach between us. Oh ! 



Letter of Sir H. Trelawny. 



125 



may we ever unite in the strictest friendship and 
harmony, looking every moment unto Jesus, that best 
of all friends, as the supreme object of our love. 
Should we both remain till March on this side the 
grave, I hope to attend you through Cornwall, and 
enjoy much comfort in your company, my dear brother. 

'When I came home I found, among others, a letter 
from Oxford, from the sub-dean of our college, in 
which I am genteelly dismissed from that society. 
After having said many things on the subject, and 
given his opinion decisively respecting my return, he 
says this : "When you consider all this, you will not 
be surprised at my expressing my most earnest wishes, 
both for your own sake, and for the sake of the place, 
that you would never think of residing in Oxford 
again." 

Could you see the whole letter, you would see still 
greater reason to conclude with me that my way is 
made clear, and that Oxford is not intended to be my 
place of abode as an academy. Oh! for a more 
intimate fellowship and acquaintance with Jesus Christ 
the Friend and the Saviour. God grant me to feel 
more real love to him, and more ardent desires after 
him. 

Now, dear, dear sir, pray for me, and write to me 
when you have leisure. May God make me thankful 
for my acquaintance with you. 

I am, my much, very much beloved brother, your 
faithful, sincere, and affectionate friend in Jesus, 

Harry Trelawny. 

Please to remember me in a christian manner to 
Mrs. Hill, and all friends. I hope I shall not be long 
without a ktter. 



126 



Mistakes of Mr, Rowland Hill. 



Sir Harry Trelawny was at this time a very young 
man, and wrote and acted with all the fervour of 
youth. It cannot be doubted that he and others, when 
they entered the university, consented to place them- 
selves under its discipline, and that, therefore, every 
irregularity was in fact a breach of their engagement 
with that body. The only excuse for their conduct 
was the almost total dearth of vital religion which 
prevailed at that time. A similar line of conduct in 
the present day would be altogether inexcusable ; and 
there is reason to believe that the career of Sir H. 
Trelawny would have been much more useful, and his 
opinions less wavering, had he passed in patience 
through his studies at Oxford, and adhered to the 
church, of which his zeal, talents, and situation in 
society, would have rendered him in all probability a 
bright and useful ornament. When Mr. Rowland 
Hill advised others to follow a course similar to his 
own, he forgot that he was a sort of privileged person; 
that both his bodily strength and mental energy were 
incalculably beyond those of almost any other indi- 
vidual ; and that the same tacit consent to his moving 
in an eccentric orbit, which he was gradually gaining, 
would not be granted to another, whose constitution 
of mind, powers of imagination, and long proved inte- 
grity of heart and purpose, had not become the subjects 
of equal notoriety. 

It is a fault often to be lamented in modern biography, 
that while all the virtues of men of piety are blazoned 
forth as bright examples to follow, their failings are 
seldom exhibited as beacons to warn us of the dan- 
gers of our course. It must, therefore, be candidly 
acknowledged that the venerable subject of these 
memoirs had, at this period of his life, fallen into an 



Mr. Richard Hill Mr. Halhvard. 12? 

error which somewhat dimmished his usefulness, and 
brought him into discredit with persons of influence. 
He was constantly in the habit of mixing up politics 
with his sermons, and of denouncing, in every place 
which he visited, the war with America ; and this in 
such violent language that hints were given him of its 
being noticed. The agitation of this question also 
made the controversy between him and the Wesleyans 
partly political and partly theological, and was the 
cause of serious evil. Whatever may be the opinions 
of ministers as to abstract political questions, their 
theme in the pulpit, and no other ought to enter there, 
should be Christ and him crucified. 

In the year 1776 Mr. Rowland Hill had the gratifi- 
cation of seeing his brother Richard elected as the 
representative of his native county in parliament ; a 
circumstance which brought them, when in London, 
into perpetual contact with each other. Mr. Richard 
Hill was chosen member for Shropshire, at six succes- 
sive elections : in 1806 he resigned. Men of piety 
and zeal ever received, a cordial welcome to his house ; 
and he manifested, upon all occasions, an ardent desire 
to aid them in their endeavours to extend the know- 
ledge of the Saviour. The very year in which he 
first entered the House of Commons, Mr. Richard Hill 
defended, in a series of letters, the doctrines of 
Mr. Hall ward, his brother's friend and correspondent 
before mentioned in this work. He afterwards pub- 
lished them in a pamphlet entitled Pietas Rediiigensis, 
or Reading Piety. Mr. Rowland Hill's early friend 
filled the curacy of St. Giles', Reading, from which it 
is well known he was displaced by Mr. Cadogan, on 
his succeeding to that preferment, but was afterwards 
entreated by him, in the most affectionate and peni- 



1 28 Hon. and Rev. W. B. Cadogan. Death of Iloiiquef. 

tential terms, to re-occupy the useful station from 
which he had been so unjustly removed. Mr. Cadogan 
concludes his invitation in these affecting words : " I 
should be obliged to you for an answer as soon as 
convenient, as you may be sure I shall make no other 
application till I have heard from you. I commend 
myself to your pity and prayers, of both of which I 
stand in great need ; and hope you will believe me, 
though once a blasphemer, persecutor, and injurious, 
to be yours most faithfully and affectionately in Christ 
Jesus, W. B. Cadogan." This offer Mr. Hallward 
could not accept, as a friend had presented him to a 
living ; but he visited the former scene of his labours, 
and continued with the people for several months. 

This year Mr. Rowland Hill was deprived by 
death of his excellent friend Mr. Houquet, whose 
constant and hearty welcome at Bristol had given a 
charm to all his visits to that city, and in whose 
church it will be recollected he preached his first ser- 
mon after ordination. He died in the 47th year of 
his age, on the l6th of November, 1776. Just before 
he expired he exclaimed thrice, " / want to go home^^ 
when his spirit winged its way to the mansion pre- 
pared for it in the unseen world of glory. He ivent 
home, and left many a poor pilgrim to weep over the 
loss sustained by the departure of such a guide in the 
way. None dropt upon his grave tears of more 
genuine grief than Mr. Hill, who briefly notices the 
event in his nnich neglected diary. His entry is : 

" Monday, dear Rouquet died. Thursday, Trow- 
bridge anniversary^ — Eat the fat and drink the sweety 
^c. Lord's day morning, began my labours in Bristol. 
Morn, preached a funeral sermon at St. Werburgh's 

. - This sermon Mr. Rouquet always preached. 



Funeral aernHnt. 



129 



— Well done, good and faithful servant, S^c. Eve, 
Tabernacle, on the same occasion — / heard a voice 
from heaven, saijing unto me, write, ^c, Tuesday, 
St. Nicholas — / have finished my course, I have, <§c." 

The first of these sermons on the Sunday, or rather 
as much as he recollected of it, he published with the 
title, a " token of respect to the memory of the late 
Rev. James Rouquet ; being the substance of a sermon 
preached in the parish church of St. Werburgh, in the 
city of Bristol, on Sunday, November 24th, 1776, by 
Rowland Hill, A.M., chaplain to the Countess of 
Chesterfield." He was appointed chaplain to Melusina, 
Countess Dowager of Chesterfield, in September, 1773, 
as appears from the instrument itself found amongst 
his papers. The sermon bears a strong and well 
expressed testimony to the excellence of Mr. Rouquet's 
character, and the usefulness of his ministry : it is 
dedicated to the poor, amongst whom its excellent 
subject so diligently laboured, and who followed in 
weeping multitudes his coffin to the tomb. 

Mr. Hill began the year 1777 at Bristol, where he 
remained after the death of Islv. Rouquet. He 
preached there nine striking and iiseful sermons, on 
the whole armour of God, a subject on which he 
always spoke with great originality and fervour. One 
of his favourite books was Gurnall's Christian Armour, 
and he often recommended it. The remark of an old 
divine, that there is no armour for the back in the 
panoply of the Christian soldier, was also frequently 
quoted and enlarged on in his sermons. " The 
believer," he used to say, " never turns his back upon 
his foe." Then he would exclaim, " shew thy shining 
breastplate of righteousness, go forward, advance 
towards thy enemy, and God shall protect thee behind ; 

K 



130 Sunday addresses to children. Prisoyi scenes, 

he has promised it-— the glory of thy God shall he thy 
rereward'' This last expression he gave with an energy 
and emphasis belonging to himself alone. 

He began at this time to preach frequently to little 
children, whom he assembled on a Sunday for that 
purpose, and had reason to believe that lasting im- 
pressions had been made on the minds of many of 
them. To us it seems extraordinary, that the idea of 
a Sunday school had never yet presented itself to any 
one of the pious men who were reviving the cause of 
religion in this country. Mr. Hill was extremely fond 
of children, and delighted in exhorting them to come 
to Jesus ; and his little books for their instruction, as 
well as his hymns for their use, have ever been justly 
admired. 

Mr. Rowland Hill was a diligent visitor of the gaol 
at Bristol, where he preached to the prisoners. He 
began, as has been before noticed, to visit prisoners at 
a very early period of his religious career, and his 
mode of addressing those unhappy creatures was pecu- 
liarly striking, and seemed at once to win the confi- 
dence even of the most hardened. He maintained, 
while conversing with condemned criminals, a solemn 
dignity of manner, with an admirable control over his 
feelings ; but when he left the cell of darkness and 
misery, a painful reaction took place in his mind. 
After coming from Newgate, in London, where he had 
visited some poor wretch who was going to suffer 
death, he would scarcely eat of any thing at dinner, 
and at its conclusion drew back in his chair to the wall 
near the window, quite absorbed in the solemn recol- 
lection of the scene of distress. If asked a question, 
he answered it in an absent manner, and every now and 
then muttered some indistinct expression, in reference 



Prkon scenes. 



131 



to the painful subject which had taken such a hold of 
his benevolent and sensitive mind. All he has vi^ritten 
of prison scenes was felt and experienced by him — and 
he drew the picture with painful fidelity to the horrors 
of human woe, derived from disobedience of the laws 
of God and man. His reflections on these occasions 
seemed to be of a twofold character — pity for the 
sufferers, and thankfulness for the striking contrast of 
his own situation to theirs. He would ejaculate in a 
solemn whisper — " Condemned to die ! — O my God, 
what a mercy to be kept from sin by the restraining 
grace of thy Holy Spirit." Those who knew him well 
will remember these moments of pensive thought, 
which he vented as though insensible of the presence 
of any other person. He occasionally seemed lost to 
all sense of the things of time, and was carried away 
from every earthly recollection by a current of thought 
deep and rapid, on the stream of which all the affec- 
tions and purposes of his mind were borne far beyond 
the attractions of this vain and changing world of 
uncertainty, emptiness, and^woe. 

To trace the movements of Mr. Rowland Hill, at 
this period of his life, as we have done in the earlier 
stages of his ministry, would only carry us precisely 
through the same scenes as those we have already 
noticed ; nor would it be easy, as he ceased to keep 
any regular journal of the places and subjects of his 
preaching. It is intended also to insert in this 
memoir nothing but what is derived from authentic 
sources, or from his own papers. There was likewise 
little or no variation in his mode of itinerating : the 
only difference was a gradual diminution of the violent 
opposition he met with in his early days. When he 
left off entering his texts in a regular diary, he pur- 

K 2 



132 Continuance of the Wesleyaii controversy. 

chased a small Bible, which lie had divided into two 
interleaved volumes ; and in this found it more conve- 
nient to note the subjects as he preached from them. 
He began this early in 1777, and marked the portions 
of Scripture which he brought before the people in the 
various places which he visited, till the year 1799. 

The year 1777 he divided between Bristol, Wotton, 
and London, and preached probably as many sermons 
as in any year of his life. In October he wrote the 
little work, from which an extract has been already 
given, called " A Full Answer to the Rev. J. Wesley's 
Remarks upon a late Pamphlet, published in the De- 
fence of the Characters of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield and 
others, in a Letter to a Friend." However greatly it is 
to be regretted that the controversy should still have 
continued, it is impossible to read this pamphlet, with- 
out being struck with his candid spirit and acute rea- 
soning upon facts, although there is much in it from 
which any man may fairly be allowed to differ. He 
says in the beginning — " The Lord rectify my former 
mistakes, and give me to write in the spirit of the 
gospel." " Still, however," he adds, in the next sen- 
tence, " if plain facts continue to bear hard upon 
Mr. Wesley, let it be remembered the fault is not mine." 
He certainly does produce some very striking ones to 
prove the truth of his statements in a former book, and 
to shew that whatever Wesley's views of perfection 
might be, he was doubtless at some considerable dis- 
tance from it himself. Mr. Hill was more particularly 
vexed at the attacks made by Wesley on the memory 
of Whitefield, and the character of his friend Lady 
Huntingdon ; and these accordingly form the first and 
leading subjects of his letter. But Wesley, whom 
nothing escaped, had made severe remarks "upon 



Continuajice of the Wedeyan co7itroversy. 133 

young Mr. Rowland's" political preaching, and de- 
nounced his observations on the rio-hts of the colonies 
as disloyal. This charge Mr. Hill rebuts in the 
strongest terms, and declares that both himself and his 
hearers are daily praying for blessings upon the king, 
peace upon the kingdom, and wishing, as much as in 
them is^ to live peaceably with all men. He says, 
besides, " from the pulpit and the press our characters 
are bespattered, and our sentiments most grossly mis- 
represented." We can only lament now, that any por- 
tion of a life so devoted to God should have been wasted 
in such a controversy as this. Here we shall take 
leave of the subject, to which it was necessary, in a 
faithful biography, to advert. The warfare perhaps 
was not without its uses ; but the benefits derived from 
it were such as nature gains by the commotion of the 
elements in a storm, and not like those which the earth 
receives from the fertilizing and refreshing shower, or 
from the beams of the bright and genial sunshine of 
each warm and cloudless day. 

Late in the year 1777 Mr. Rowland Hill records 
that he preached a sermon at " Mr. Toplady's chapel 
little thinking, probably, that he was, during the fol- 
lowing year, to lose him by the stroke of death, though 
it had been feared for some time past that his health 
was on the decline. There were few persons for whose 
piety, character, and talents, Mr. Hill had a higher 
veneration ; and the shades of difference of opinion, in 
some points, which existed between them, never ob- 
scured in the slightest degree the perfect sincerity of 
their friendship. The removal of Toplady was the 
prominent event affecting Mr. Hill in 1778. In other 
respects his career was very similar to that of former 
years — an uninterrupted and energetic course of almost 



134 Death and funeral of Toplady, l^^S. 

daily preaching. Mr. Toplady died on Tuesday, Aug. 
11, 1778 ; and on the 17th of the same month his 
remains were conveyed from Knightsbridge, for inter- 
ment in Tottenham-court chapel. In accordance with 
his expressed desire, that he might be laid in the sepul- 
chre of the dead without any eulogy from the living, 
or the parade of an ostentatious funeral, the time of his 
burial was kept, as much as possible, concealed from 
the public. Still, from information which could not be 
prevented, thousands of people attended at the cere- 
mony ; and Mr. Rowland Hill, unable to restrain the 
expression of his feelings, rose unexpectedly, and with 
an energy and pathos that commanded the breathless 
attention of the congregated multitude, delivered an 
unstudied, but not on that account less touching and 
beautiful address, on the excellencies of him over whom 
they were then assembled to lament. The power of 
his language on this occasion added to his reputation 
as a speaker ; it also evinced the real feeling and piety 
of his heart, whence it came in all the glowing sensi- 
bility of the emotions by which it was agitated and 
impressed. The same evening he preached at the 
Tabernacle, on Jer. xxxii, 40, 41, evidently in allusion 
to the deceased, and the peculiar opinions of which he 
had been the champion ; and Mr. Matthews,^ the friend 
of Toplady, employed the close of the day in writing 
him an account of the last moments of that eminent 
departed minister. His letter was as follows : — 

REV. SIR, 

I have scarcely time to transmit you the fol- 
lowing remarks and sayings of our dear departed 

^ Mr. Matthews was a most respectable and excellent bookseller, No. 18, Strand, 
and was much with Mr. Toplady in his last illness. He was, T have heard 
Mr. Hill say, the father of the celebrated comedian of the same name. 



Letter of Mr. Mattheivs. 



135 



friend, the Rev. Mr. Toplady. He was blessed during 
his late illness with great consolations, and almost an 
uninterrupted sunshine of God's countenance. His 
assurance of faith was steady and firm, like the basis 
on which it was built. He has frequently declared, 
" that he had not had the least doubt of his personal 
interest in Christ, for many months past." He told 
me very lately, that he was " the happiest man in the 
world," He said to a friend, " O how this soul of 
mine longs to be gone, like a bird out of a cage, to the 
realms of bliss ! O that some guardian angel might 
be commissioned, for I long to be absent from this 
body." 

When being asked by a friend if he always enjoyed 
such great manifestations, he replied, " that he could 
not say that there were no intermissions ; for if there 
had not been, his consolations would have been more 
than he could have supported; but when they were 
abated, they always left such an abiding sense of God's 
goodness, and his being fixed upon the rock, that it 
filled his soul with joy and peace." 

Another time, and indeed many days together, it 
was his declaration, " Oh ! what a day of sunshine has 
this been, I have not words to express — almost with- 
out intermission his presence has been with me ; " and 
then repeated various passages of God's word, adding, 
" what a great thing it is to rejoice in death !" Speak- 
ing of Christ, he said, " his love is unalterable." He 
was happy in declaring that the 8th chap, of the 
Romans, the 33rd and six following verses, " were the 
joy of his soul." He often spake upon that passaga of 
God's word with great delight, and said, "Lord Jesus, 
why tarriest thou so long?" He used to say, "I find 
as the bottles of heaven emn^^y they are filled again," 



136 



Letter of Mr, Matthews, 



meaning, I suppose, the continued out-pourings of the 
Spirit with which he was favoured. 

When he drew near his end, he asked, " Who 
can fathom the joys of the third heaven?" And, 
believing the doctrine of the ministration of angels 
to God's saints, he said, " What can be the reason 
that the ministers of the gospel speak so little upon 
it?" 

A little before his departure, he was blessing and 
praising the Lord for giving him strength in helping 
himself, and understanding ; but added, " What was 
all this to his presence and the shining of his love to 
my soul ?" and cried out, " the sky is clear, there is 
no cloud." 

Within an hour of his death, he called his servant, 
and said — " Can you and my friends give me up ?" she 
said, " We can, as the Lord is so gracious to you." 
He replied, " Oh, what a blessing it is that my dear 
friends are made willing to give me up into the hands 
of my dear Redeemer, and to part with me. It will 
not be long before God takes me." He added, " No 
mortal man could live, after God had manifested to him 
the joys that I have seen." Many more glorious con- 
fessions passed from his lips, but time fails me to enu- 
merate them. I can only add, that his gain is the 
church's loss, and pray God to send more such able 
champions into his vineyard, that may be enabled to 
make as bold a stand for the defence of the gospel as 
he has done. 

I hope, sir, you will pardon the incorrectness that 
you meet with, and excuse the hasty manner of draw- 
ing it up, being much straitened for time. May the 
Lord bless you and your ministrations, and grant that 
you and I may thus die the death of the righteous, and 



Wesley and Mr. Richard Hill, 



137 



that our latter end may be like his. Which is the ear- 
nest prayer of 

Your most obedient humble servant 

in the best of bonds, 

Strand, No. 1«, August 17th, 1778. JaMES MaTTHEWS. 

The Rev. Rowland Hill. 

This interesting account of the comfort enjoyed by 
Mr. Toplady in the prospect of death, is a complete 
answer to all assertions to the contrary, which were 
too readily believed. A similar contradiction to these 
reports was given to the public at the time they were 
afloat ; and Mr. Matthews was one of those who 
signed the published testimonial to the triumph of his 
faith, in the awful moment of separation from all the 
scenes and attractions of this material world. In 1779 
Mr. Richard Hill addressed a letter to Mr. Wesley, 
calling on him, in a series of questions, to say whether 
or not he was the person who circulated any of the 
reports, which tended to cast a shade over the last mo- 
ments of his friend, Mr. Toplady. He had previously 
made the same queries, anonymously, in the General 
Advertiser ; and as Wesley declined answering them 
without knowing their author, he openly acknowledged 
that they came from him, and repeated them. Sir 
Richard Hill's own copy of this letter was amongst the 
papers of his brother, and on it is written, in the 
author's handwriting, " to this Mr. John never made 
any reply ; but two friends of Mr. Toplady's waiting 
upon him to know wherefore he had made such asser- 
tions, he passed by them, got into a coach that was 
waiting, and said, ' those that are for peace will let 
these things alone.' " 

From this time to the period of the erection of 



138 



Newton, Romaine, Cowper. 



Surry Chapel Mr. Rowland Hill continued his itine- 
rancy in various parts of the kingdom. He paid fre- 
quent visits to his family at Hawkstone, when he 
always officiated in the chapel of the house, and in the 
episcopal chapel at Weston, where he used great 
fidelity, and took much pains in the selection of his 
subjects. 

In the year 1779 Mr. Newton came to London, and 
commenced his ministerial duties there, in which, and 
in those of Mr. Romaine, Mr. Hill took a lively in- 
terest. It was through Mr. Newton that he became 
acquainted with the poet Cowper ; and no one more 
deeply grieved over the painful gloom, which obscured 
an intellect as pure and enlightened as ever adorned a 
human being. He received much kindness and atten- 
tion from Cowper, and always spoke of him with the 
greatest reverence and affection. 

The crowds which followed Mr. Rowland Hill 
every where at this time were excessive, and his minis- 
try was greatly blessed. Amongst those who profited 
by his preaching, were several persons who had amassed 
considerable fortunes, by diligence and integrity in 
business, and who were willing to consecrate no small 
portion of their gains to the service of their Saviour. 
They moreover naturally desired to find some place of 
a permanent nature, in which the minister whom they 
loved might assemble them as his own congregation, 
and convey at the same time the truths of the gospel 
to a neglected portion of the metropolis. Mr. Hill had 
often preached in the open air to vast multitudes in 
St. George's Fields ; and he used to say that at the time 
of the riots, in 1780, he had addressed on the moment- 
ous concerns of eternity, assemblies of nearly twenty 
thousand people. Many of these were so wrought on 



Surry Chapel. 



139 



by his preaching, that they returned home to seek in 
retirement mercy from their God, forgetting political 
excitement in an all-absorbing anxiety for the salvation 
of their souls. Plis own thoughts, as well as those of 
his friends, now turned towards St. George's Fields, as 
an appropriate situation for a large place of worship ; 
and it was at length determined to erect a building for 
this purpose which should be called Surry Chapel. To 
further this object he found many willing and liberal 
contributors, who cheerfully consented to permit him 
to spend the summer months either in travelling, or in 
his delightful retreat at Wotton, and were content to 
receive such supplies during his absence as he should 
appoint. At this time, not only chapels in every part 
of the kingdom were freely opened to him, but a consi- 
derable number of churches in the country and Lon- 
don. In the neighbourhood of the seat of his family 
there were several clergymen who cordially welcomed 
him to their pulpits, and none more so than his zealous 
friend Mr. De Courcy, the incumbent of the parish 
of St. Alkmond, in Shrewsbury, where he preached 
many of his most effective sermons. He found also 
clergymen ready to afford him their services at Surry 
Chapel, particularly Messrs. Venn and Scott. The 
former of these excellent men came regularly from 
Yelling to assist him ; and an annual exchange took 
place between Mr. Hill and the well known preacher 
at the Lock.^ 

It was determined to have the service of the new 
chapel performed according to the ritual of the Church 

4 ]Mr. Scott's own remark on this exchange is — " after I had been a few years in 
London, I refused to preacli irregularly, except once in the year I consented to 
exchange puipits with Mr. Hill, of Surry Chapel, that being the stipulated condi- 
tion of his preaching a charity sermon for the Lock Hospital." 



140 



Surry Chapel. 



of England ; and there were but few among the origi- 
nal promoters of its erection, who did not find in such 
spiritual forms of devotion a suitable expression of the 
outgoings of their minds in the public worship of God. 
The situation was chosen, not with reference to the 
advantages of place, but with the design of ameliorat- 
ing the religious condition, and administering to the 
spiritual benefit of one of the most depraved districts 
in the metropolis ; and this not only by precept, but 
by the yet stronger influence of the pious and benevo- 
lent example of those who formed the nucleus of the 
congregation. Mr. Rowland Hill's own design with 
respect to the chapel was, that its pulpit should be 
open to pious ministers of all denominations, and of 
every country. This sort of union was the point to 
which all the public actions of his life converged, and 
made him the zealous supporter of every institution 
that drew together men of different religious commu- 
nities into one common arena of action. The impulses 
of a benevolent disposition, much more than deep reflec- 
tion, were the moving principles of his religious career ; 
and he believed that things might be as he wished to 
see them. The light of love was so bright in his mind, 
that it overpowered the milder beams of deliberate cal- 
culation. This was so evident, that even those who 
differed most widely from him, never doubted for an 
instant the perfect purity of his intentions, or the 
honesty of his opinions. 



141 



CHAPTER VI. 

Sun-y ChapeU 1732. 

The first meeting to forward the erection of Surry 
Chapel was held on February 4th, 1782, at which 
Mr. Rowland Hill and several other persons, ministers 
and laymen, attended. It was then determined that 
the building should be placed in the most eligible 
spot, between Blackfriars' bridge and the obelisk, to be 
chosen by persons selected for that purpose. It was 
also agreed that the affairs of the chapel should be 
vested in trustees, but that Mr. Hill should provide 
and direct the ministers, so long as he sJiould preach 
agi^eeablij to the doctrinal articles of the Church of 
England, and did not give the use of the pulpit to any 
one who was knoivn to preach otherwise. Very liberal 
subscriptions soon raised the necessary funds ; and 
amongst the names of the subscribers appears that of 
Lord George Gordon, for fifty pounds. The erection 
of Surry Chapel received also the sanction of the ma- 
nagers of Mr. Whitefield's chapels, where Mr. Rowland 
Hill had so often preached, and they expressed an 
earnest wish to remain still upon the most amicable 
terms, and to assist one another. 

The first stone of this well known place of worship, 
was laid by its future minister, on June 24th, 1782, 
when he addressed the vast assembly present, on the 
words, Therefoi^e thus saith the Lord God, Behold I 
lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tined stone, a 
precious cornier -stone, a sure foundation ; he that he- 
lieveth shall not make haste, Isaiah xxviii, 16. He has 



142 



Surry Chapel, 1783. 



marked against this passage in his interleaved Bible, 
" 1st sermon, Surry Chapel, June 24, — 82." No less 
than three other persons afterwards preached to the 
multitude around them. Very much to the annoyance 
of Mr. Rowland Hill, some individual, soon after the 
ceremony, published a sermon which professed to be 
the one delivered by him on the occasion. This he 
disclaimed in several of the daily papers ; notwith- 
standing which, it was reviewed, as his, in some of 
the periodicals of the day, and amongst them in the 
Europemi Maga% 'me, in which both himself and his 
pretended production were ridiculed. This, as will be 
seen hereafter, he noticed severely in his preface to the 
sermon preached at the opening of his chapel. 

Although anxious of course to be much on the spot, 
during the erection of this important building, Mr. 
Rowland Hill did not neglect to pay a visit to his 
people in Gloucestershire, where there had flocked 
around him a band of converts, whose piety would 
have done honour to any church in any age. Religion 
was not then, as it is now, admired and courted by the 
world ; but it was sneered at and despised, and those 
who were the subjects of its genuine influence were 
marked and avoided. This threw the real Christian 
on his own resources ; they were his all, and he expe- 
rienced their inexhaustible power of giving inward 
comfort, and producing external fruitfulness. 

The building of the new chapel in London was suf- 
ficiently advanced in the summer of 1783 to allow it 
to be opened for public worship on the 8th of June. 
Mr. Rowland Hill selected for his text on that day the 
words — But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews 
a stmnhling-hlock ; and mito the Greeks foolishness : 
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, 



Opening of Surry Chapel 



143 



Christ the poiver of God, and the wisdom of God: 
1 Cor. i, 23, 24. While the works were in progress, 
he had frequently spoken to many people drawn to 
them by curiosity, and his addresses on these oppor- 
tunities were made very useful. Several persons also 
were converted by the sermon he had preached at the 
ceremony of laying the foundation stone, some of whom 
came to him to declare the impression made on their 
minds, and to ask his advice. He used also to gather 
the little children together, when they came to play 
about the building, and after engaging their confidence 
by kind words, and by little presents of cakes and 
fruit, he would talk to them of Jesus in the simplest 
and most affecting manner. In the evening of the day 
on which Surry Chapel was opened by the sermon just 
alluded to, Mr. Piercy preached another in the same 
place, and a very serious occurrence had nearly hap- 
pened. The building being erected on a marshy soil, 
the foundation was considered by some persons insecure, 
and in the midst of the service a false alarm was given 
that it was yielding to the pressure of the crowd. 
Mr. Hill entered the pulpit, and endeavoured to per- 
suade them that all their apprehensions were ground- 
less, to prove which, he said, he should remain there 
till the last, and begged them to stay quietly in their 
seats. Notwithstanding this, a general rush took 
place, and many in their struggle to get out were much 
injured. Mrs. Hill was forced out by the pressure, and 
fell in the chapel yard, but she providentially escaped 
any serious bruises. 

The spurious production, which was sent forth as 
the sermon delivered by him on the day of laying the 
foundation-stone, induced Mr. Rowland Hill to publish 
the one he preached at the opening of Surry Chapel. 



144 Surry Chapel. Opening sermon. 



Many of his hearers also earnestly requested him to 
print it. Though not in the habit of writing or 
making notes of his discourses, he had on this occasion 
drawn up a copious outline of his address, to which he 
could allude, in the event of another attempt to palm 
upon the public a composition like the former. A per- 
son, too, had taken down the sermon in short-hand as 
delivered, and sent him a copy of it ; and from these 
two sources he compiled his publication, which he pre- 
faced by some severe and characteristic remarks, upon 
what had been said of him in the previous year, by the 
writer of the article in the European Magmijie. • He 
first corrected the inaccuracies into which they had 
fallen, as to his personal history and adventures. He 
next made the following observations upon their cen- 
sures of his doctrine : — And as they are pleased to 
give the public charitably to understand that my me- 
thodistical doctrines of grace are ^ hostile to morality^ 
tend to overthrow the duties of good citizens^ and the 
virtues of good men,' I could almost find it in my 
heart to ask them to explain to the public our enthu- 
siastical notions of grace ; and 1 dare say they would 
soon discover that they know no more what they write 
against than poor Quixote knew what he fought 
against, when he fought with the windmill." The 
title of the sermon is, " Christ Crucified the Sum and 
Substance of the Scriptures," and most strikingly does 
it illustrate the great Scriptural doctrines of the di- 
vinity, incarnation, atonement, and exaltation of Christ, 
and the sanctification and comfort of his church. It 
concludes with a plain but excellent remark on the 
happiness arising from religion. " Fancy not that you 
lose yovir pleasures when you lose your sins, and that 
living to God will be an irksome task ; no, blessed be 



Original trustees of Surry Chapel. 



145 



God, thousands can declare that they never knew what 
it was to be redeemed from misery, till they were re- 
deemed from sin. My whole soul prays that God 
would make you of that happy number. Even so be 
it, Lord Jesus. Amen." 

The management of the affairs of Surry Chapel 
was, as has been before mentioned, vested in trustees ; ^ 
and Mr. Rowland Hill had the satisfaction to see his 
brother Richard at the head of the directors of the 
concerns of his new and respectable congregation. 
Surry Chapel has been the scene of many a remarkable 
event in the religious occurrences of the age, and of 
very numerous and striking conversions. Both the 
organ and singing have long been celebrated ; and 
some, attracted there simply by a desire to hear its 
music, were caught in the net cast by its vigilant and 
zealous minister, and became numbered with its most 
active, liberal, and constant friends. Once, however, 
Mr. Hill had a narrow escape from the iniquitous 
design of some miscreant, who fired at him while in 
the pulpit, through one of the low windows next 
Blackfriars' road. The report was heard, and the 
ball, or other hard substance, passed to the left of the 
pulpit, through the window near the organ, which it 
broke. The individual who attempted this diabolical 
act was never discovered, nor did he repeat it ; and 
whenever Mr. Hill mentioned the circumstance, he 
always expressed his thanks to Providence for deliver- 
ing him from so great a danger : for had not the 
substance aimed at him risen in its projection, it 

* The original trustees were Sir Richard Hill, Rev. Rowland Hill, Messrs. 
Joseph Simras, John Keysall, Edward Webster, Thomas Wilson, Samuel Lloyd, 
William Lloyd, John Bush, James Neale, James Webber, Thomas Bicknell, 
George Smith, Ambrose Martin, John Clarke. All these have passed into another 
world except Mr. William Lloyd, who dined with his venerable minister and the 
other trustees only a few weeks before his death. 

L 



14() Death of Sir Roiv land Hill, 

passed so directly over him, that there is every reason 
to fear his valuable life would not have been spared. 

In the autumn of the same year in which his chapel 
in London was completed Mr. Rowland Hill lost his 
father. Sir Rowland Hill died August 7th, 1783. 
By this event he obtained some accession of fortune, 
which he much needed, as the income he derived from 
his chapels at Wotton and London never, in any one 
year of his life, covered his expenses upon them. Of 
the proceeds of Surry Chapel the trustees paid him 
only 3001. a year, and out of that he boarded the 
whole of the supplies who occupied the pulpit during 
his absence in the summer. The rest of the receipts 
went towards the support of the chapel, and to the aid 
of the numerous charitable institutions connected with 
it, to which Mr. Hill always was a munificent contri- 
butor from his own purse. Some person once said of 
him, " Rowland Hill must get a good annual sum by 
his chapels and travelling" — which coming to his 
ear, he remarked — " Well, let any one pay my tra- 
velling expences for one year, and he shall have all my 
gains, I promise him." 

Though Mr. Rowland Hill supplied the pulpit of 
Surry Chapel, while absent, with ministers of various 
denominations, his chief delight was in getting it 
occupied by his old clerical friends, Pentycross, Ber- 
ridge, and Venn ; and when he could no longer ob- 
tain help from the church, it gave him no little dis- 
quietude. Probably no place of worship has been 
the source of more institutions for promoting the 
glory of God and the welfare of man than Surry 
Chapel. One of the first, begun in 1784, was its bene- 
volent society for the relief and personal visitation 
of the sick poor. There were a number of pious and 



Benevolent Simety\ Alms-houses. 147 

judicious members of the congregation to whom this 
duty was entrusted, and who were willing to devote 
themselves to the work. Thus whenever a doubtful 
application was made to Mr. Rowland Hill for relief, 
he asked for the person's address, and answered, " I 
will have the case visited ; " and before many hours 
had elapsed, some of the visitors of the society had 
either relieved the distressed family, or detected the 
intended imposture. Accounts of the most striking- 
cases of want that had occurred to these truly 
Christian philanthropists, were read annually from 
the pulpit, and a collection was made for the supply of 
the society for the ensuing year. There were attached, 
moreover, to the chapel no less than thirteen Sunday 
schools, containing above three thousand children ; 
and from this source there have been supplied to the 
heathen world several valuable and efficient mission- 
aries. More devoted teachers than those who under- 
took the gratuitous superintendence of these children 
have never been found in any similar institution. 

The contributions of the Surry Chapel congrega- 
tion to the cause of missions were immense ; and the 
annual meeting of the London Missionary Society, 
which took place within its walls, was one of the 
most striking sights of the kind to be seen in the me- 
tropolis. There v/as also a female missionary society, 
which contributed about one hundred pounds annually 
to this cause. 

One of the most interesting appurtenances of Surry 
Chapel is a neat gothic building in the Borough, the 
centre of which is appropriated to a school of industry 
for twenty-four poor girls, who are both clothed and 
educated. Its wings contain alms-houses for the same 
number of poor women, who are allowed, in addition 

L 2 



148 



Anecdote, Dorcas Society. 



to a comfortable room aud a sufficient supply of fuel, 
four shillings a week towards their support. The 
only qualifications necessary for a candidate on a 
vacancy were distress and a Christian character. The 
person applying must have been seven years a regular 
attendant of the sacrament at some place of worship, 
and was required to bring testimonials of her con- 
sistent conduct from the minister. Mr. Hill was very 
careful in selecting the inmates of this comfortable 
asylum, and extremely quick in detecting those who 
endeavoured to find their way into it by a hypocritical 
profession of religion. One day an old woman came 
curtseying and canting about the " blessed work " that 
she had lately felt in herself through hearing him. 
He soon saw into the character of his visitor, and 
with an inimitable glance at her sanctimonious visage 
said, Yes, my good woman, and I have lately built 
some Messed alms-houses ; should not you like one of 
them?" She smiled, and muttered out a delighted 
assent ; but he added, " I do not think you will get it 
in a hurry, if you do not give some better evidence of 
the Messed work than I can see in you now." No 
man was more patient of sincerity, however tedious, 
in any person who came to consult him ; but a 
withering look and quick rebuke were the sure fate of 
the detected pretender to religion assumed with a 
merely secular design. 

In addition to the institutions already mentioned, 
there were formed, by members of this religious com- 
munity, a Dorcas society for the relief of poor married 
women, and a clothing society for the supply of the 
needy, at very reduced prices. It may be said of 
these societies, that though the machinery by which 
they were worked was somewhat complicated, the 



Prayer-meetings . 



149 



objects they had in view were admirably effected by 
them ; and the reason of this was, that those to whom 
their management was committed, were persons who, 
by evident proofs of real piety and zeal, had gained 
the confidence both of their pastor and the flock in 
general. 

Mr. Rowland Hill formed at Surry Chapel a reli- 
gious society peculiarly his own, with the articles of 
the Church of England as its standard of doctrine. 
Converts who gave him satisfactory evidence of their 
sincerity were admitted into the society, and their 
names enrolled as admissible to the table of the Lord ; 
a custom not unusual in dissenting communities. He 
was a warm advocate for prayer-meetings, which he 
constantly attended ; but no person prayed in his pre- 
sence, unless called upon to engage in this sacred 
exercise by himself. He considered that much benefit 
arose from them, in the increase of a spirit of piety 
and brotherly love ; but late in life he admitted that 
they were not without their attendant evils, and 
wished he had considered by what means he could 
have so managed as to have made them the channels 
of more unmixed usefulness. Still he was of opinion 
that, on the whole, great good resulted from them. 
The question, by what mode of meeting his people, 
in addition to the common assemblies for regular 
worship, a minister can most effectually promote their 
growth in religion, and become acquainted with their 
state of mind, without engendering spiritual pride in 
some, and jealousy in others, is well worthy the con- 
sideration of those who have had the longest expe- 
rience upon such subjects. The most laborious and 
intelligent of the clergy have found the greatest diffi- 
culty in deciding on the best way of thus managing 



I'^^O Situation of Surry Chapel, 

the private discipline of those who have received spi- 
ritual benefit from their preaching. 

To distinguish public from social worship, in which 
a layman may officiate in the presence of his minister, 
is a very favourite theory with some good and zealous 
persons. The evils resulting from this custom amongst 
dissenters have long been visible in the dictatorial 
direction of what the precise views of their several 
ministers must be, and in the want of a teachable 
spirit in receiving their instructions, as well as of a 
willingness to be guided by pastoral authority and 
influence. For a clergyman to permit and sanction 
such a proceeding is scarcely consistent with the 
proper discipline and order of the church ; and is, to 
use the judicious language of Mr. Scott, an " irregu- 
larity which cannot be justified to our diocesans or 
others." Besides, anything which tends to make men 
undervalue the appointed usages of public worship, 
conducted solely by the authorized minister, is an 
evil which no good, arising from other modes of 
bringing the professedly religious together, can ever 
possibly counterbalance. 

After the erection of Surry Chapel, Mr. Rowland 
Hill became the minister of a regular congregation, 
with a settled residence in London. He was not, on 
this account, less mindful of the former scenes of his 
labours. There existed no jealousy between him 
and the managers of Tottenham-court Chapel and the 
Tabernacle, where he had been made the means of such 
numerous conversions. The recollection of his early 
preaching in these places was cherished by him to the 
end of his days, with a happy retrospect of the ease 
with which he spoke, and the crowds who attended 
liis ministry. In the last sermon he ever preached. 



Sh' Richard Hill. 



151 



delivered on March 31, 1833, he said, " Oh ! my dear 
brethren, I ahnost wish to be made young again ; if 
I could but see such days as when I first came and 
preached at Tottenham-court Chapel, and was in the 
habit of preaching in the streets and lanes for want 
of room. Oh ! how I love to recollect what I then 
felt." 

When he entered upon his residence in St. George's 
Fields, they wore an aspect far different from their 
present appearance. All about him, especially between 
his house and the Westminster-road, was nothing but 
a marshy swamp, and the turnpike gate which now 
opens upon it, near the house of Bishop Bonner, was 
called the Marsh Gate. Here he was content to live 
and labour for the Lord, and to be the scorn and 
ridicule of the world for the sake of promoting, by 
what he conscientiously believed to be the most effi- 
cient means, the spread of the Redeemer's kingdom. 

At this period of his life, though opposed by Innu- 
merable enemies, and treated with unsparing censure 
by a portion of the press, he had many comforts. Sir 
Richard Hill, now the head of his family, was a fre- 
quent attendant at Surry Chapel, and a kindred spirit 
even in his lively and witty turn of mind. While one 
brother was preaching daily in all places and at all 
times, the other was not ashamed to quote in the 
senate from what he denominated " a now-a-days obso- 
lete book called the Bible," nor ever lost an oppor- 
tunity of publicly avowing his religious opinions. His 
house also was open to the leading revivalists of the 
day ; and he was one of the very few who had the 
courage, in the midst of the rank and fashion with 
which his situation, style of living, and fortune, sur- 
rounded him, to declare that he was not ashamed of 



152 



Spread of Infidelity. 



the gospel of Christ, and of its faithful and despised 
ministers. 

The year after he opened Surry Chapel, Mr. Row- 
land Hill had not only the satisfaction to see his elder 
brother again returned to parliament as the repre- 
sentative of the county of Salop, but his brother, 
Mr. John Hill, was also elected member for the town 
of Shrewsbury. He continued to sit in parliament 
till the year 1796, when the borough was contested 
with him by his relation, the Honourable William 
Hill, afterwards Lord Berwick, who succeeded, and 
was returned together with William Pulteney, Esq. 
In 1805, however, Mr. John Hill was re-elected for 
Shrewsbury, and Sir Richard for the county. On the 
dissolution in 1806 they both retired together from 
parliament. 

At this time also Mr. Rowland Hill had many 
churches open to him, both in London and in the 
country; but the two, perhaps, in which he most 
delighted were that of Mr. Cadogan,^ Reading, and 
St. Alkmond's, Shrewsbury. De Courcy, the minister 
of the latter, was originally a protege of J ohn Wesley, 
and is highly commended by him in a letter to Lady 
Maxwell ; but he had withdrawn himself from Wesley's 
advice and Arminian doctrine. He was a man of 
great power as a preacher, and was made very useful. 

Just at the period which now engages our attention, 
it is well known that the plague of infidelity, which 
had infected a great part of the continent of Europe, 
became an awful moral epidemic, destroying the pre- 

^ In a letter addressed to a near relative of mine, Mr. Cadogan writes—" I am 
happy to inform you that Mrs. Cadogan is a great deal better, and in full expecta- 
tion of seeing you with Mr. and Mrs. Hill on Tuesday next. Pray give my love 
to them, and tell them thai we shall depend upon seeing them, and that I shall 
give out the Rev. Rowland Hill to preach on Tuesday evening." This letter was 
dated April 14th, 1789. 



Spread of Infidelity. 



153 



sent comfort, and blighting the future prospects, of 
thousands in this country. Satan seemed to be gain- 
ing a direful ascendancy ; and but for the few lights 
scattered here and there in our land, who upheld the 
scriptural purity of the church's doctrines, we should, 
to all human appearance, have been involved in the 
same gloom, and horrified with the same appalling 
deeds of darkness, that desolated a neighbouring 
nation. God, however, in mercy, provided for us an 
antidote to these evils ; and if ever there was an illus- 
tration of the truth, that the Jioly seed is the substance 
and bulwark of a land, it was in our own case. In 
London and in other parts of the kingdom, there were 
here and there planted men who lifted up the standard 
of the cross against the enemies of the truth ; and 
some of them lived to witness the wide-spreading 
influence of those doctrines which they had fearlessly 
inculcated in days of error, ignorance, and unbelief. 
Full homage has been paid to their memory, and their 
works are following them. 

In the midst of his other engagements, Mr. Rowland 
Hill never forgot his flock at Wotton, nor his faithful 
followers at Bristol and in Wales, where his journeys 
were eminently prosperous. In the principality, 
wherever he went, he was followed by multitudes. 
He daily seized the opportunity of the noontide rest 
from labour, to gather around him the peasantry of the 
mountains ; and in the evenings of summer, thousands 
would congregate on the side of some romantic hill, 
after a walk of many miles by rugged and steep paths. 
He could not speak Welsh, but those in that country 
who can understand English are exceedingly fond of 
hearing preaching in our tongue. The Welsh preachers 
will tell us their language is the most expressive in the 



154 Welsh sermons in Surry Chapel. 

world, and from its being perfect, there is no doubt it 
was that which our first parents spoke in paradise ! 
Still the Welsh are so perverse, that they delight in 
hearing English preaching, for which they were, on 
one or two occasions, severely and quaintly rebuked by 
their famous Howel Harris. Much, however, as they 
like English in Wales, when in England they delight 
in the accents of their native tongue ; and when any 
eminent Welsh minister happened to be in London, 
Mr. Hill used to invite him to preach a Welsh sermon 
in Surry Chapel. On such occasions hundreds of 
natives of the principality, who were employed in the 
gardens near the metropolis, would assemble : and the 
numbers not unfrequently amounted to a congregation 
of two thousand, forming a very interesting spectacle. 
There is one expression in the Welsh language which 
Mr. Hill justly considered singularly beautiful and 
appropriate, and he used sometimes to dilate on it with 
all the force and fervour of his brilliant imagination. 
This was the term Ysj^rid Glan, Holy Ghost, or lite- 
rally the Clean Spirit, a designation admirably applied 
to that person of the Trinity, by whose divine and 
glorious agency the hearts of believers are cleansed and 
purified, that they may be made temples of the living 
and infinitely holy God. 

While Mr. Rowland Hill used every means in his 
power to spread the knowledge of the truth at home, 
his zeal was not confined within the limits of his native 
country. He desired to lend his aid in enlightening 
the whole world, and grieved over the chains and dark- 
ness of the poor negro slave. A proof of this is to be 
seen in the following letter to him, from a pious and 
devoted Moravian missionary, written long before the 
institution of those societies which will ever form the 



Letter of Peter Brown, 



155 



brightest jewels in England's shining diadem of fame 
and honour. It shall be given in its original broken 
English ; and will be read with admiration of the sim- 
plicity and piety of its author, and of the account he 
gives of the result of his labours amongst the negroes 
in Antigua. 

Antigua, July 27, 1785. 
MY VERY DEAR SIR, AND BROTHER IN CHRIST, 

I resivet your very kind letter by Captain 
Keyser. I shame myself for that houner you wrote 
to me, because I am of the lower sorte peoble in the 
world, and even a German man, which cannot speak 
proper English (tho' the neger understand me). As 
you then, worthy sir, has wrote me such a feeling 
letter, and with such a kind impression, so then I will 
make my poor answer to you so good I can, and you 
will be so kind and accept of it. I am now here more 
than 16 year, sendet from my brethern callet the Unitas 
Fratrum, from Amerika ; callet Bethlehem the place 
where I came to the congrigation, and I am now more 
than 30 year with the brethern. A smal beginning 
was made here since the year 1759, but not much pro- 
gress whas at this time, while several of our brethern 
diet. But then as our dearest Lord has given me the 
grace to be amongst them, so my doing was nothing, 
but the sufering and death of our dear Seviour, and 
what it has cost him to redeem us from death, devil, 
hell, and sin ; so as I have found forgiveness of my 
sins, and grace in the wounds of Jesus. This then 
has enderet^ in there hearts, and broke there strong 
and brass hearts, and has brought them to the know- 
ledge that have the souls do,^ which our dear Lord 



Entered. 



* That the souls do have. 



156 



Letter of Peter Brown, 



and Seviour has redeemet with great pain and smart. 
This has stirrt up there sinful hearts, and came changet 
more and more, and so the poor blak became so eager 
to hear the word of God, and to hear from our dear 
Seviour ; and so many as come obedient to the Gospel 
so they become Christians, loving him who has re- 
deemet us, comen obiedens to there owners, and faithful 
peoble in all respect, who thus truly belief in Jesus 
Christ our Lord. 

When I came here 16 years ago, there was about 
14 baptiset negero, but since this time it has increaset 
in baptism do^ 3000 negro by site what is baptiset by 
the enmisters^ of the English church. There number 
is even larch, but them what is baptiset by us they 
have there pertikler [instruction] to speak faifatly^ 
with them. The missioners which is placet here with 
me, the man with the negro man, and the missioners 
wifes with the negro women, and that is a great work, 
and that is every month, one month with the baptiset 
ones, and the other month with the candidates for 
baptism, and a great many learners which comes and 
goes that we callet new peoble. By them we only see 
how the grace of our dear Lord thus afFectet their 
heart, and wait to be comfortet. Others even who 
comes to the meeting, and has not done with the world 
and the sin, they go away again from us. So by the 
negro we can say, the kingdom of God is like a net 
which is cast in the sea, and all sorte fish it cadges^ 
good and bat, so the good ones is to be savet and the 
others thrown away. Otherwise we have most every 
evinning meetings, and so on Sunday for^ and after- 
noon, fornoon is preaching, and in the afternoon there 
are the quarter meeting we callet, first the new peoble, 

\ To. 6 Ministers. 7 Faithfully. » Catches. ^ Fore. 



A Moravian missionary in A7itigua. 157 

then the candidats for baptism, and then the baptiset. 
Then every meeting has their own instruction such as 
is suitable to them, them with each class muss speak to 
their circumstances that is comen to the class where 
they are in. 

I have wrote^ your letter to the baptiset negro, and 
told them how a gentelman in London, who has a 
larger congregation as we are, has such an esteem for 
the work of God in Antigua amongst the poor negro, 
and thus pray for us [that] they may love God from 
all there heart, and all there soul and mind. So then 
they sigh. I asket them if I shall salute this good 
gentelman from them, and if they will pray for him 
likewise? So they all with one voice saying, yes 
master, give our hearty love to that good gentelman ; 
we also will pray for him so good we can. It was in- 
deed a moving amongst them. 

Certainly, dear sir and brother, when the grace of 
our dear Lord changet there heart, then they become 
comelines^ unto our Lord Jesus Christ as you write ; 
and when we seem them and feel how the grace of 
our Lord works on there heart, and in the meeting, 
we faifatly speaking, see the tear trinkling down from 
there cheekes, for longing to love our dear Seviour, 
who soferet and diet for us — when we see this and 
feels this from them, then we cannot be otherwise but 
love them, and spend there life with them ; but they 
are a stifF-naket'^ peoble, and great hipocrites, but the 
grace of our dear Lord has meltet many hearts, and 
that comforts us in our work. 

You writes from your hounable B. in-law, if we at 
this site keep meeting? I have inquiret by gentel- 
mans here who knows Mr. Tud way's estats, and that 

* Read. - Comeliness. ^ Stiff-necked. 



158 



Letter of Peter Broivn. 



is on Barham town and thereabouts ; we have not as 
yet kept meeting on this site, neither we have there. 
This time we have two congrigations here, one St. 
John's which whas the first and largest, and the other 
Gracehill, which is a of-spring* of St. John's, near 

Fallmuth, ten miles from here to south-east, then 

to south-west, where is near 900 baptiset people, there 
we should lay on the 3ter^ congregation, which is 
about 6 miles from here. We have first our mind on 
2 — 3 akker of land there from a gentelman of his 
estate, but he resides in London, a young gentelman. 
He was expectet out this year, but is not come, he has 
not quite his age, his name is Francis Fry, but is ex- 
pectet the next year out, and if please God that good 
gentelman's heart will grant us this favour, with a 
pease of land from his estate, God will bless him for it, 
while it is for God's sake, and the poor negro slaves. 
Then I must build again, and if our dear Lord spare 
me my life, and I am well, I shall be glad for it. If 
then another door shall be openet, and the hounerable 
Tudway will help us at this site, which we callet the 
windward site, that is to the eastert, we shall be very 
thankfull. But, dear sir and brother, we are poor 
peoble, we have nothing in this world, our time we 
have here we spendet to the poor negro, and we are 
providet by our brethern at home, for all our necessary 
matters outwardly, and when we ever lay on a new 
place, our dear brethern at home, that is in Germany 
and Amerika, supscribe by collection from the congre- 
gation every where for the Headen missions, and by 
them we are supportet for building and our outwarte 
wants. 

Now then, worthy belovet sir and brother, what you 

■t Offspring. ^ 



Missions, 



159 



wish in the end of your letter, that all glory and 
thanksgiving will be given to God and the Lamb, and 
that out of all nation shall be gatherith together, and 
shall praise and thank him for ever. That the Lamb 
of God has taken away all sin, and has washt our 
garment white in his own blood. I join with you in 
this, and hope to see us on that happy place for ever, 
and ever, amen. Though unknown here, but in spirit 
are one even on earth, and therefore we love one 
another while he has lovet us and gave his life, and 
shet his blood for us. Please to give my humble re- 
spect to your lady, the hounerable Mr. Tudway and 
his lady, and all with you who loves Jesus Christ in 
sincerity, and all well wishers and all friends to the 
gospel, amen. So thus all my fellow lebrors^ with me, 
which works in the vineyard of our Lord, and the poor 
negro thus the same with us, and I am with much love 
and esteem to your worthy person, though unknown 
to your most afectionate humble servant, and poor 
brother, Peter Brown. 

From the interest Mr. Rowland Hill took in the 
success of this pious missionary, we may trace the first 
movement towards the great exertions which he after- 
wards made, to send the gospel to the remotest regions 
of the earth. The wonderful efforts of Brown in 
Antigua had reached his ears, and excited an increased 
love for the missionary cause. Antigua, as is evident 
from his Village Dialogues, was long and often in his 
thoughts ; and indeed the numerous conversions and 
zeal of the poor negroes in that island, were calculated 
to awaken in every pious breast a fervent longing for 
their souls, and pity for their wrongs. Towards en- 



Labourers. 



160 



Missions. 



larging their place of worship, the poor slaves, at each 
evening meeting, brought stones and other materials 
with them, and worked diligently at the task of pro- 
viding more extensive accommodation for the worship 
of their God ; cheerfully completing their toil by volun- 
tary labours at the close of those which were forced on 
them during the day. By accounts such as these, 
Mr. Hill's benevolent mind was stirred up by degrees to 
extensive exertions on behalf of heathen nations ; and 
by his zeal and energy at home, he became one of the 
most unvarying holders of the cord that supported the 
machine, in which the first missionaries of the present 
day descended into the depths of the unexplored, idola- 
trous, and wretched recesses of the heathen world. 

It has been often objected to the zealous promoters 
of missions, that they aid them at the expense of those 
who have a prior claim to sympathy in their own land. 
It is an unjust accusation. Those who shine brightest 
in their own sphere reflect the most light to a distance ; 
and indifference to the cause of the heathen is generally 
accompanied by negligence at home. No one cared 
more for his people and fellow-countrymen than 
Mr. Rowland Hill ; and this he proved by indefatigable 
exertions while residing with his different flocks, and 
by unceasing endeavours to obtain, when absent, such 
supplies as would administer unto them in all diligence 
and gospel sincerity. When writing, soon after the 
erection of his chapel in London, to Mr. Burder, he 
tells him, " the poor sheep left in the country are near 
my heart," and begs him to occupy his place while he 
visits them. He also describes himself in his droll 
manner, as " rector of Surry Chapel, vicar of Wotton- 
under-edge, and curate of all the fields, commons, &c. 
throughout England and Wales." One of his most 



Letter of Mr. Venn. 



161 



favourite substitutes, when away, was Mr. Venn, of 
Yelling' ; ' whose assistance he the more valued on 
account of his being a beneficed clergyman. Mr. Venn, 
however, in occupying Surry Chapel pulpit, forgot the 
due observance of ecclesiastical discipline and order. 
He felt, no doubt, that the doctrines were those of his 
own communion, and the service the same. Still it 
was an act of irregularity contrary to canonical rules, 
and therefore not advisable even in those days ; but he 
was a man of admirable piety and zeal. The following 
letter from him will much interest those who view 
with delight the spread of religion in the University of 
Cambridge, and the inconceivable blessing that has 
long accompanied Mr. Simeon's ministry there. 

DEAR SIR, Yelling y Jan. 31, 1786. 

About a fortnight since, I received yours, 
dated the 21st of Dec. Much am I indebted to my 
Christian brother for remembering me before the 
throne of grace. The God who healeth hath heard 
their prayers for me, and I am in such health, that 
provided I can get a supply, and it may be agreeable 
to you, I purpose making the experiment of preaching 
for you at Surry Chapel in April, beginning the Sunday 
after Easter, for eight Sundays. But I shall not be 
able to do more than preach twice on the sabbath ; not 
on a Tuesday. If it please our adorable Master that I 
come, I will be sure not to overwalk myself, and take 
the best care I can not to exceed either in length, or in 
exertion of voice. At home you may suppose there 
are strong objections against making the attempt ; but 
were I sure to suffer in body, if your hands in the 
glorious work may be strengthened, and opportunity 

" The author of the Complete Duty of Man. 



102 



Letter of Mr. Venn. 



given for you to spread the gospel, or visit and confirm 
those who have received it, I hope I should not shun 
making the trial. If it please God my brother Gambler 
is alive, I shall be so much at his house, and my son's- 
in-law, and other friends, that I shall seldom be a 
lodger at your house. 

You will be agreeably surprised when I tell you I 
preached in exchange for dear Simeon at Trinity, to 
many of the gown, and afterwards in the evening to a 
company at Mr. Musgrave's, and on Wednesday even- 
ing at your old friend Mrs. Bunn's. Indeed there is a 
pleasant prospect at Cambridge. Mr. Simeon's cha- 
racter shines brightly. He grows in humility, is fer- 
vent in spirit, and very bountiful and loving. Isaac 
Milner^ kept an act in the schools, Dec. 15th last, on 
justification by faith only. His thesis was forty mi- 
nutes, and admirable. The pit could not contain the 
masters of arts, and a greater number there was of 
students than has been seen there for years. I went 
over on purpose ; and I doubt not good will come from 
it. Jonathan Edwards's works are now called for; and, 
what is remarkable indeed, the professor of law (Dr. 
Jowett) and the three first mathematicians in the uni- 
versity confessedly, Milner, Coulthurst, and Farish, are 
all on the side of the truth. Lift up your prayer, that 
they may feel, and live, and work, for Christ, and the 
salvation of souls. There are twelve students pro- 
mising to come forth in the service of our Lord. I 
have heard also of an excellent minister near Chester. 
His name, Nicholson. When the bishop ordained him 
(though he was never at college) he was so much supe- 
rior in scholarship and his knowledge of divinity to 

8 Late Dean of Carlisle, Master of Queen's College, Cambridge, and continuer 
of the History of the Church, begun by his brother. 



ICS 



the rest, that tlie bishop took great notice of him, anil, 
when alone, told him, " I have had many complaints of 
you as a 3Iethodist ; but go on and prosper, and God 
bless you." 

Mrs. V. joins with me in wishing Mrs. Hill and 
yourself all increase in spiritual blessings. 

From yours sincerely in Christ, 

H. Venn. 

To add to his friend's delight at these tidings, 
Mr. Venn again writes, in a letter dated Yelling, 
March 23rd, 1786." "On Sunday last Mr. Simeon 
and I exchanged. There were more than twenty of 
the gown to hear. In the evening I spoke to eighty 
in a house. The prayers offered up for our poor uni- 
versity are regarded. Two of the first amongst the 
bachelors of this year promise well. So great is their 
character, that instead of ridicule and spiteful sneers, 
the profane youth choose to avoid the subject of reli- 
gion, lest they should be fairly out-argued. I have 
now been twice at Cambridge, and both times have had 
my heart much warmed with what I have seen and 
heard. How delightful the prospect, that when we old 
and worn out servants and soldiers shall be called out 
of the field, others are entering in, who will do valiantly 
under the banner of our dear general, who has died for 
us. Mr. Simeon's light shines brighter and brighter. 
He is highly esteemed, and exceedingly despised ; 
almost adored by some ; by others abhorred. O what 
numbers, if the Lord will, shall come out from Cam- 
bridge in a few years to proclaim the glad tidings !" 

Such news as this would deeply affect him to whom 
it thus came. The gospel he preached in the university 
to the poor, despised, and humble followers of his steps, 

M 2 



Mr. Si7neon. 



now influencing the lives, opinions, and characters of 
the first men in Cambridge ! What an assurance 
would this afford him, of the reality of the impressions 
of his younger days ! He had always the highest 
respect for the characters of those individuals men- 
tioned by Mr. Venn, and spoke of Mr. Simeon's in- 
valuable labours with the sincerest delight, though he 
well knew that he disapproved all irregularity in a cler- 
gyman's administrations. Indeed, there is every reason 
to believe, that the observance of order, which has 
been so judiciously regarded by Mr. Simeon and his 
followers at Cambridge, has tended greatly to promote 
the influence of numbers of the zealous clergy, who 
are now so vigilantly and successfully defending the 
best interests of the church. On one occasion 
Mr. Rowland Hill, with his usual delicacy of feeling, 
refused to preach in a dissenting place of worship at 
Cambridge, lest he should appear in any way to inter- 
fere with the course so wisely pursued by Mr. Simeon, 
whose incalculable usefulness will never be fully appre- 
ciated till the day in which the unostentatious followers 
of the Lamb shall be rewarded in the presence of the 
assembled universe. 



165 



CHAPTER VII. 

Sunday schools. 

The Sunday schools attached to Mr. Rowland Hill's 
chapels were amongst the earliest established in this 
country. The one at Surry Chapel commenced in 1 786, 
and was cordially supported by him during his whole 
life. Its teachers were selected from the most pious, 
active, and intelligent members of the congregation, 
who conducted its affairs with the spirit and faith of 
prayer. Those who were engaged in that interesting 
work of Christian love, will ever remember how he 
used to come into the school-room on a Sunday after- 
noon, to converse with the teachers, and encourage or 
rebuke the children, as the case required. The silence 
which took place on his entrance was not that of 
uneasiness or impatience at his presence, but a pleasing 
expectation that some word of comfort or advice 
would fall from his lips, to refresh and stimulate them 
in their holy occupation. Mr. Hill's mode of en- 
couraging the children who were distinguished for 
their diligence and good conduct, was singularly happy, 
and seldom failed to leave a salutary impression on 
their minds. His power of reproof to offenders was 
extraordinary ; few persons could bear his look and 
voice of censure, which was seldom, and most re- 
luctantly, called forth. When some of the children, 
who had been regular in their attendance at the school, 
grew up, and became useful men in the world, he 
would often speak of their good behaviour in youth — 
"Aye, I remember him, he was always a nice lad," 



166 



Letter of Cowper, the pact. 



He was foud of asking — " Have you read Ellis's 
book on the South sea islands ? — oh ! worthy, sensible, 
good creature — he was a teacher in our Sunday schools ; 
he is an honour to us." Several missionaries were trained 
in the same place, and many, who were themselves 
instructed there, became instructors of the succeeding 
generation, leading others to the source of their own 
usefulness and comfort. At Wotton, as well as in 
London, the same work went on, and his school became 
a blessing to the place and neighbourhood. When 
there, a bell rang on the Sunday morning before 
breakfast, to summon the inmates of his house into 
the midst of the teachers and children, when his family 
prayer was offered up amongst them, with an in- 
describable unction and fervour. Those who have 
never heard him pray, cannot imagine the sublimity 
with which he engaged in communion with God, or 
his striking conceptions of the infinite holiness of the 
divine nature, and of his own worthlessness ; he 
seemed, before man, to be invested with all the dignity 
of the saint, while he was humbled in dust and ashes 
before the Most High. A remarkable proof of his 
power was the stillness of the children while he prayed: 
some of whom were converted at a very early age, 
whose characters he has beautifully drawn in his 
" Token for children." His hymns for children are 
very simple and beautiful. The first edition of them 
v/as corrected and improved by the poet Cowper, as 
appears from the following letter : — 

^lY DEAR SIR, JVeslon Underivoodj March 29thj ITOO. 

The moment when you ceased to be incog. I 
ought to have written you at least a few lines of 
ajiolooy for the liberties I had taken with your hymns. 



Letter of Cowper, the poet. 



167 



but being extremely busy at that time, and hoping that 
you would be so charitable as to pardon the omission, 
I desired Mr. Bull to be my proxy, charging him to 
make my excuses, and to assure you that I was per- 
fectly satisfied with your making any alterations that 
you might see to be necessary in my text. If any 
thing fell from my pen that seemed to countenance 
the heresy of unive^'sal redemption, you did well to 
displace it, for it contradicted the Scripture and 
belied me. 

I am much obliged to you for the little volumes 
which I received safe on Saturday ; and because I 
suppose that your end will be best answered by dis- 
persion, if I should have occasion for half a dozen 
more, will order them from your bookseller without 
scruple. 

I am, my dear sir, with much respect, and with 
Mrs. Unwin's compliments. 

Your affectionate humble servant, 

Wm. Cowper. 

Should you want me on any similar occasion here- 
after, I am always at your disposal. 

Rev. Rowland Hill. 

We have now no means of ascertaining the words 
of the alteration mentioned in this letter. That the 
fundamental principles of both these good men were 
Calvinistic, generally speaking, is well known ; but 
the term particular redemption, in opposition to 
universal redemption, was never made use of by 
Mr. Hill. He offered Christ freely to all, telling them, 
at the same time, that by nature the withered hand of 
man was unable to receive the gift of salvation, until 



168 



Hymns for children. A happy death. 



restored by his power who commanded him to stretch 
it forth. 

The following short hymn is a fair specimen both 
of the style and doctrine of those he composed for 
children : — 

A PRAYER FOR A GRACIOUS MIND. 

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God : Matt, v, 3. 

Dear Jesus, let an infant claim 
The favour to adore thy name ; 
Thou wast so meek, that babes might be 
Encouraged to draw near to thee. 

My gracious Saviour, I believe 
Thou canst a little child receive ; 
Thy tender love for us is free, 
And why not love poor sinful me ? 

Then to a child, dear Lord, impart 
An humble, meek, and lowly heart ; 
O cleanse me by thy precious blood, 
And fill me with the love of God. 

Tho' oft I sin, yet save me still. 
And make me love thy sacred will ; 
Each day prepare me, by thy grace, 
To meet thee and behold thy face. 

In the spring of 1790 Mr. Rowland Hill made 
another preaching tour in Wales, and his old friend 
Captain Joss came into Gloucestershire, to supply his 
place while absent. To notice, however, in detail his 
preaching journeys at this period, would only be a 
repetition of events precisely similar to those already 
described. Year after year they were much the same, 
except that his character rose, and opposition to him 
rapidly diminished. Captain Joss, in his reply to 
Mr. Hill's application for his services while in Wales, 
comforted him by an account of the happy death of 
an eminently pious female. He tells him that just at 
the last, she said, " Put by the curtain which was 



Ilhiess of Mr. Venn, 



169 



accordingly drawn aside, and the beams of the sun 
coming full into the room and on her bed, she re- 
marked — " thirty and four years have I known the 
Lord, and can now no more doubt of his eternal love 
to me, an unworthy creature, than I can doubt of the 
shining of the sun, which I now see and feel." She 
uttered only a few more v/ords, full of faith, and then 
departed to those realms of joy, of which God and the 
Lamb are the sun, the temple, and the glory. 

In the beginning of the year 1791 the excellent 
Mr. Venn of Yelling found himself unequal to the 
task of continuing his attendance at Surry Chapel, 
The author of the Complete Duty of Man " had well 
learnt one part of it — resignation to the divine will, 
which he thus expresses in a letter to Mr. Rowland 
Hill, dated Yelling, January 21st, 1792 : — " My very 
dear brother, I write to you when just recovered from 
a gentle stroke of the palsy, which prevented me for 
three Sundays from speaking. This was beyond ex- 
pectation — though now I shall not be able to do my 
own little work without an assistant, which I have in 
my eye. From hence you will conclude, I must give 
up every thought of preaching for my friends, and 
now withdraw from being a servant of the church, to 
take care only of my family and my own poor sinful 
soul, which will be employment enough for my im- 
paired strength and faculties. I depend much upon 
my praying friends — They will not despise nor forget 
a poor broken vessel, in whom hath been lodged the 
treasure of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. 
Pray for my good behaviour, and joyful acquiescence 
in the will of God — may pain, weakness, confinement, 
solitude, be all borne with great cheerfulness." How 
encouraging, to see aged and afflicted ministers of 



Eostraordinary conversions. 



Christ thus exhibiting, in their own persons, the power 
and value of the truths they spent their lives in enforc- 
ing on others. 

Among the many results of Mr. Rowland Hill's 
labours at this time in London, none were more re- 
markable, than the extraordinary conversions of several 
notorious infidels and persecutors. Some of these 
became afterwards zealous promoters of the cause 
they once hated and despised. One individual, a 
member of an infidel club, came on a Sunday evening 
into Surry Chapel merely to gratify his curiosity, or to 
ridicule the truths he heard, but returned home crying 
for mercy and pardon ; and in a few days after visited 
Mr. Hill, to inquire what he should do to be saved. 
He was a man engaged in a laborious business, but 
dedicated his few leisure hours to the service of God ; 
and it is supposed that his benevolent exertions 
brought him to a premature, but happy termination of 
his life. Another man, a drunkard, swearer, and cruel 
persecutor of his wife, who belonged to Mr. Wesley's 
Society, received her one evening on his return from 
his chapel with such kindness of manner that she was 
astonished. He said, " I have been to hear Mr. Hill ; 
— I am a sinner ; you were right, I was wrong — I 
hope I shall never be unkind to you again, but that we 
shall walk together in the same way." Instances such 
as these were of frequent occurrence, in addition to 
the numbers of the careless and indifferent whom his 
ministry aroused from their awful lethargy. The 
reports that were in circulation of his odd sayings in 
the pulpit, brought not a few into his chapel, where 
they heard, instead of observations to excite their 
mirth, an awakening appeal to sinners, that sent them 
as trembling and weeping penitents to a throne of 



Anccdule. 



171 



grace. Most of the anecdotes told of his eccentricities 
in the pulpit are incorrect, though it is certain that at 
times he did illustrate his meaning, by introducing into 
his sermons what he often acknowledged afterwards 
he had better have left out — " but," he would add, 
" the queer thought came into my head, and out it 
came, and I could not help it ; I wish it had kept in 
though." It almost always happened, that whenever 
he had given way to his natural disposition for the 
ludicrous, or had been more than usually eccentric in 
his manner, there followed a lowness of spirits, and he 
then acknowledged the regret he felt, at having been 
led away by any levity of mind, while engaged in the 
solemn service of the pulpit. A gentleman of his 
acquaintance once met him at Brighton, where he 
heard him preach a sermon, in which there was such 
a mixture of the humorous, that the congregation were 
excited by it to a considerable degree of laughter. 
This was followed by such an awful address to their 
consciences^ and a pathos so deep and melting, that 
there was scarcely an individual present who did not 
weep. In the evening, the conversation at the house 
in which he was visiting was of a very lively nature. 
After Mr. Hill retired, the gentleman before alluded to 
thought he heard some one in the passage, and on 
going out, found him at the foot of the stairs. He 
feared he was unwell ; but on enquiring the reason of 
his remaining there, he discovered him to be in deep 
agony of mind, to which he gave vent in confessions of 
sorrow at having been such a trifler, and mourned over 
his unseasonable drollery with the simplicity of a 
child. Before he went to his room he said — I never 
wish to say a single word to excite a smile which 



172 



Different modes of preaching. 



would prevent an immediate approach to God, in all 
the solemnity of spiritual prayer." The scene was 
most alfecting, and was a striking proof of his con- 
trition when he reflected, that by giving way to the 
natural sprightliness of his disposition, he might have 
prevented his real usefulness, or have forgotten for an 
instant the character of a messenger of the gospel. 

Mr. Rowland Hill was a great observer of the 
different modes of preaching, and once drew up, in his 
peculiar style, a string of characteristics of the various 
kinds of pulpit orators. He thus describes them : 

JBold Manner, The man who preaches what he 
feels without fear or diffidence. 

Self-confident, A man who goes by nobody's judg- 
ment but his own. 

Rash. A preacher who says what comes uppermost 
without any consideration. 

Rambling. A man that says all that pops into his 
mind without any connection. 

Stiff. One who pins himself down to think and 
speak by rule, without any deviation. 

Powerful. The man who preaches, from the bottom 
of his heart, the truths of the gospel with energy, to 
the consciences of his hearers. 

Finical. Minces out fine words with nothing in 
them. 

Sober. The man who lulls you fast asleep. 

Elegant. The man who employs all his brains upon 
dressing words, without ever aiming at the heart. 

Conceited. Vainly aims at every thing, and says 
nothing. 

Welsh Manner. A man that bawls out very good 
things till he can bawl no longer. 



Different modes of preachi7ig. 



173 



Methodist Splits the heads of his sermons into so 
many parts, that he almost splits the heads of his 
hearers. 

Affectioiiate, The happy man who feels for souls 
tenderly, preaches Christ affectionately, and yearns 
over souls in the bowels of Jesus Christ. 

Dogmatic. A man who goes by his own brains, right 
or wrong. 

Peevish. One who picks into every body's thoughts, 
and thinks no one right but himself. 

Fanciful. One who instead of being led by wisdom, 
runs after a thousand visionary whimsies and conceits. 

Self-important. Thinks nobody like himself. 

Noisy, A loud roar, and nothing in it. 

Genteel. The vain fool that is fond of dressing up 
words without meaning. 

He once said of a man who knew the truth, but 
seemed afraid to preach it in its fullness — " he preaches 
the gospel as a donkey mumbles a thistle, vei^y 
cautiously.'' He could not endure any thing like 
vanity in a minister. A very fine dissenter, with a 
doctor's degree fresh from the north, once paid him a 
visit ; he fidgetted about all the time he was talking : 
when he left the room, Mr. Hill lifted up his eyes and 
said in his most comic tone of voice, " Only think that 
a D.D. degree should ever be converted into a pedestal 
for a puppy !" 

During the period of the French revolution, and its 
concluding awful scenes, Mr. Rowland Hill wisely 
conceived that the best course he could take, as a 
minister of the truth, was, without joining any political 
party, to preach the gospel of Christ, as the surest 
antidote to disloyalty and error. Many were curious 
to hear him at this time, whose infidel principles, 



l/^* Wise rour.se of Mr. Rowland Hill. 

cherished by the iniquitous associations which they 
joined, had rendered them disaffected towards all order 
and proper government, whereby their own happiness 
and comfort, and the peace of such of their fellow- 
countrymen as had imbibed their pernicious notions, 
were destroyed. Some of these were so impressed by 
his sermons, that the result was a change of heart by 
the grace of God, and of course a change of principles 
and conduct. His own language on this subject is— 
" We know that the state receives daily benefit by the 
gospel we attempt to disseminate, as we have the 
fullest evidence that such as were enemies to the Bible, 
and enemies to the government, are now the friends of 
both, and that from the best and firmest principles ; 
and even such as are suspected of disloyalty to the 
constitution are refused connection with us." He has 
also recorded an encouraging instance of the power of 
the gospel. " Two brothers, in a large line of business, 
were both of them members in some of the corre- 
sponding societies. They were called by a kind pro- 
vidence to attend at Surry Chapel. Their curiosity, 
or a much worse principle of ridicule and contempt, 
brought them at first to hear. It pleased God to 
impress the word home upon their hearts, and from 
mere monsters they became men and Christians indeed. 
The joy introduced into their families was inex- 
pressible, and the credit brought to religion very 
considerable. When they came to me to be admitted 
to the Lord's table, they freely told me, though with 
much compunction, what they originally were. From 
them I was informed, that it is the first business of this 
horrid horde of rebels, to seduce all their associates 
into the principles of infidelity, through the medium 
of Paines Age of Reason. This being accomplished. 



Death of Mr. Bvrr'nh^e. 



their language becomes the most sangiiinaiy, and their 
projects the most daring and dangerous. Upon their 
conversion to God, all their former connections were 
immediately renounced, and a strict adherence to public 
and private worship was seriously attended to, and a 
large number of their apprentices, led on by them in 
the same way, were wonderfully recovered from the 
like snare." No one can for an instant doubt, that 
Mr. Hill, in these times of agitation and danger, 
pursued the proper course. May all ministers remem- 
ber, that the true mode of allaying the convulsion of 
the waters, when the storm of unbelief and anarchy 
comes on, is to drop on each wave as it passes beneath 
them, a portion of that sacred oil which has power to 
diffuse a holy calm wherever its influence extends. 

On the 22nd of January, 1793, good old Mr. Berridge 
died, aged 76. His constitution had long before given 
way, and he sunk into the grave, fairly worn out by 
exertion and anxiety for the spread of the word of life. 
His funeral sermon was preached by Mr. Simeon, of 
Cambridge, from 2 Tim. iv, 8. Six clergymen, who 
perhaps a few years before would have ridiculed and 
despised him, supported the pall on the occasion of his 
interment, and gave the tribute of a heartfelt sigh to 
the memory of his piety, disinterestedness, and zeal. 
When speaking of him, Mr. Rowland Hill used to say, 
" Many a mile have I rode, many a storm have I faced, 
many a snow have I gone through, to hear good old 
Mr. Berridge ; for I felt his ministry, when in my 
troubles at Cambridge, a comfort and blessing to my 
soul. Dear affectionate old man, I loved him to my 
heart." Mr. Berridge wrote his own epitaph, a truly 
characteristic composition : — " Here lie the remains of 
John Berridge, late vicar of Everton, and an itinerant 



176 Berridge's Epitaph. Ireland. Players, 

servant of Jesus Christ, who loved his Master and his 
work ; and, after running on his errands for many- 
years, was caught up to wait on him above. Reader, 
art thou born again? — (no salvation without a new 
birth.) I was born in sin, Feb. 1716 ; remained 
ignorant of my fallen state till 1730 ; lived proudly on 
faith and works for salvation till 1754 ; was admitted 
to Everton vicarage 1755 ; fled to Jesus for refuge 
1756 ; fell asleep in Jesus January 22, 1793." 

In the autumn of 1793 Mr. Rowland Hill visited 
Ireland, and found pulpits open to him in Dublin and 
other places. His career was not, however, marked by 
any event of great importance or interest, till the year 
1795, which he spent in great activity. At Wotton, 
he was exceedingly annoyed by the introduction into 
the town of a company of travelling actors, whom he 
thought it his duty to oppose to the utmost extent of 
his influence. The clergyman of the parish was 
favourable to the licence for the performances being 
granted ; and he and another gentleman signed the 
petition to the authorities for that purpose. A number 
of respectable inhabitants drew up a counter petition, 
which had Mr. Hill's entire approbation. Still the first 
was successful, and the performances were permitted. 
The bishop of the diocese was adverse to these exhibi- 
tions, but acted towards both parties in a very judicious 
manner, and obtained from the clergyman an assurance 
that, though he could not withdraw the opinion he had 
given on such entertainments, he would not be in 
future " a strenuous advocate for them." Notwith- 
standing this, Mr. Hill thought it right to express his 
censure of these amusements, in an expostulatory 
address to the clergyman in question, remonstrating 
with him on the course he had pursued, and resorting 



Ka'poatulatory addresn. 



177 



at times to a vein of sarcasm, which, it is to be feared, 
diminished the salutary effects of some very striking 
and truly spiritual remarks, to be found in the 
pamphlet. After declaring his opinion that there is 
nothing in religion hostile to such recreations as may 
be denominated innocent, and contrasting them with 
those of the stage, he makes, as he draws to a con- 
clusion, the following excellent observations : There 
was a time when primitive Christianity could make 
its way, notwithstanding all the opposition that was 
drawn forth against it, by the persecuting rage of 
heathen darkness and papal superstition. Her cause 
was glorious, and her beauties were her own. Holiness 
to the Lord was engraven upon the lives of its pro- 
fessors. Under the influences of that divine change, 
which made all its real converts 7iew creatures in 
Christ Jesus, they lived like those who firmly believed 
that the life of Christianity was a life of deadness to 
the world, and devotedness to God ; their only glory 
was in the cross of Christ, hy which they esteemed 
themselves crucified to the world, and the world unto 
them. They were dead, and their lives ivere hid with 
Christ in God. 

" Now, is this the Christianity of the present day ? 
Is there a single feature belonging to the modern 
professor, which bears the most distant resemblance to 
the sacred primitive character, as thus described in the 
word of God? I know the answer, and am glad to 
meet it. * We need not in these days be so strict and 
rigid in our religion as were the primitive Christians.* 
Now, if this expression be allowed to speak out, it 
means not so pure and holy ; and then I ask, why not? 
If the nature of God be unalterable, so must the nature 
of true religion. And if this alteration be now allov/ed, 

N 



17« 



London Missionary Society. 



when did the time for this first commence ? And how 
far may we suppose that we have advanced in this 
lawful decline ? 

" Religion, indeed, may alter in its forms, under 
different dispensations, but not in its grand designs. 
That we should love the Lord our God with all our 
hearts, minds, souls, and strength, and our neighbours 
as ourselves, is the grand ultimatum of all religion, and 
the eternal demand of Him with whom is no varia- 
bleness, nor shadow of turning. If time should have 
it in its power to deface the strength of this command, 
by the same parity of reasoning, time might ultimately 
obliterate the command itself ; century after century 
we need only love him a little and a little less. The 
commandment has already stood, as enjoined by our 
Lord, for near eighteen hundred years ; and by the 
sample we now show in the present century, in opposi- 
tion to the strict and rigid sentiments of the primitive 
Christians, in a century or so farther down it seems as 
though it would be perfectly annihilated." 

There never was a Christian more convinced than 
the author of this unanswerable passage, of the perfect 
incompatibility of stage amusements with spirituality 
of mind. Some years after the affair at Wotton he 
published in two letters to the Rev. George Burder, 
some aphoristic observations on public amusements, 
which he entitled a " Warning to Professors." 

The year 1795 was the era of an event in which 
Mr. Rowland Hill was most deeply interested — the 
formation of the London Missionary Society for the 
conversion of the heathen. There was no institution, 
to which he was to the end of his days more fervently 
attached ; and it never possessed a more zealous and 
effective promoter of its interests. He was one of its 



Loiulon Mifisio7un'y Sociefy. 



first directors ; he concluded its first meeting with a 
solemn invocation of the hlessing of God on its de- 
signs ; in the vestry of his chapel, the proposal was 
first made that the islands of the South sea should be 
the scene of the commencement of its efforts ; and to 
the last days of his existence, the success of this cause 
was one of the chief objects of his solicitude and 
prayers. He rejoiced in the prosperity of every mis- 
sion, upon the principles of the gospel, to the heathen 
world ; but the profession of the London missionary 
to miite in one great object, without reference to minor 
differences in views or in forms, peculiarly harmonised 
with the tone and character of his mind. He could 
never see that, except with reference to the univer- 
sally acknowledged source of all truth, the Word of 
God, such a union is at least in the present state of the 
Christian world impracticable ; and that, as things 
are now, we shall probably act most effectually by 
ranging ourselves in separate companies under the 
same Captain of our salvation. When those who had 
united with them at first, retired to act with their own 
particular communities, he felt it as a desertion, and 
used to say, "Ours is a missionary society for all; 
why leave us ? " In fact, it was a peculiar feature of 
his plans, that he never believed a scheme which he 
had long cherished could not be reduced to practice, 
making no allowance for the nature of the minds of 
men : like the theorist who, in constructing some ma- 
chine, forgets to calculate on the friction of the parts, 
and the resistance of the air. 

Mr. Rowland Hill preached a missionary sermon at 
Surry Chapel for his favourite, and now long useful 
society, on the occasion of the first general meeting, on 
Thursday, September the 25th, 1795. His text was, 

N 2 



180 Missionary day at Surry Chapel. 

And this gospel of the kingdom shall he preached in 
all the world for a witness unto all nations^ and then 
shall the end come : Matt, xxiv, 14. There were pre- 
sent about two hundred ministers of various denomi- 
nations, forming a most impressive and animating 
spectacle, which has been repeated for many years on 
the second Wednesday in May, in the same place. 
The missionary day at Surry Chapel was, to its devoted 
pastor, in the brightest sense, a gala. On that morn- 
ing he rose earlier than usual, and before breakfast 
was seen seated at a table near the window of his 
room, looking alternately at the people as they ga- 
thered in the chapel yard, hours before the opening of 
the doors, and at the Bible and Book of Common 
Prayer, to select the lessons for the day, and to refresh 
his recollection of the service he was about to read. 
When any one entered the room, he would say, see 
what a churchman I am ; I must have it all correct : " 
then perhaps he would make a few remarks on the 
first movements of his mind towards the great cause 
of missionary labours. Presently Mrs. Hill came down, 
when he said to his servant, " come up to prayer." 
The family were soon assembled, and in a short, but 
sublime supplication, he poured forth the deep feeling 
of his soul. It was a solemn and affecting moment ; 
few could have heard him unmoved. At breakfast he 
was interrupted every instant, but not at all annoyed, 
by the entrance of those connected with the manage- 
ment of the society, or by the introduction of some 
distinguished foreigner, who desired to witness the 
routine of the day. Now and then he was called out 
to prevent the persons in the yard from rushing 
through the house into the chapel, in their anxiety to 
gain early admission ; and it was only by the strongest 



Missionary day at Surry Chapel. 181 

remonstrances, that many of them were prevailed on 
to wait for the opening of the doors. As soon as the 
hour of service arrived, he went to the vestry ; pre- 
sently there was a general movement in the chapel, 
and all eyes were fixed on his venerable figure, as he 
slowly ascended the steps of the desk. No reader ever 
gave a more solemn effect to the liturgy of the church 
of England ; his deep feeling, brought out by the 
scene and the occasion, his powerful and melodious 
voice, and his thorough conception of the beauty and 
spirituality of the form of prayer he loved, combined 
to give a pathos and dignity to his performance of this 
part of the service, which has never been surpassed by 
any minister. After the prayers, the missionary hymn 
was given out by one of the phalanx of ministers who 
occupied the front of the galleries, and sung by the 
immense congregation, all standing. The full tones of 
the fine organ, the combination, in a simple melody, 
of three thousand voices, and the recollection of the 
object of their meeting, inspired an emotion which 
thrilled through every Christian's breast. After the 
sermon Mr. Rowland Hill held a plate at one of the 
doors, and the people seemed to strive for the honour 
of putting their donations into his hands. If the col- 
lection went on well, his countenance beamed with 
delight, and he hastened at its conclusion up the steps 
to his own house, to reckon its amount, surrounded by 
those whom he had invited to dine with him in the 
school-room. The sum gathered was seldom found 
deficient. Once, in times of difficulty, it was less than 
usual by nearly a hundred pounds. His depression 
v/as evident to all near him ; but in the evening, as he 
sat silent and in low spirits at the falling off, a gentle 
tap was heard at the door, a letter was brought in, and 



182 Missionary day at Surry Chapel. 

Ccirelessly opened, with the remark " a begging letter^ 
I dare say." It contained a draft for one hundred 
pounds, from a generous individual, who had observed 
the effect of the diminution in the collection on his 
mind, and who expressed his anxiety for the honour 
of Surry Chapel, and the comfort of its then aged 
pastor. His eye brightened, and he exclaimed, " The 
Lord hath not forsaken us, we shall now do better 
than ever ; we should never doubt." 

In the midst of the large company he entertained 
at dinner after the morning service, he said little ; but 
when he spoke, there was an instant silence. Several 
clergymen were generally of the party, and sometimes 
a discussion took place between them and the dissenters 
who were present. Mr. Hill used vigilantly to watch 
this, that he might instantly repress any symptoms of 
sparring. It once happened that the parties growing 
warm appealed to him. He put on one of his arch 
looks, and said, " Well, I declare I must say you are 
both equally wrong ; and I was just thinking, that if 
you were tied together by the tail, like two cats, and 
thrown over a forked stick, you would scratch each 
other's eyes out." The effect of such an unexpected 
decision must be left to the imagination. 

The majority of Mr. Rowland HilFs guests on the 
missionary day left the dinner table at an early hour, 
to attend some evening meeting of the same society : 
two or three intimate friends generally remained with 
him, and he then opened his mind with much freedom, 
both with reference to recollections of the past and 
anticipations of the future. He would tell of his early 
trials and difficulties, speak of the present aspect of the 
times, and intersperse between his observations the 
most amusing and enlivening anecdotes. If the ser- 



Mr. Hilfs ophuoji of Chalmers' aermviis. 183 

mon had been elaborate and wanted unction, he would 
say, ^That cut and dried stuff never tells ; it does not 
get hold of the people ; it is too Jltie by half. There 
was once a man preached for me at Wotton, and used 
such hard words the people could not understand him. 
Some of the plain folks used to say to me when I came 
from London, — ' We do know what we do hear, when 

you do preach ; but Mr. do use so many dictioji- 

ary words we can't understand his meaning — we don't 
know where he do get 'em, unless it be out of the 
almanack.'" On one occasion he said, "It is asto- 
nishing what nonsense some people will talk in the 
pulpit. When I was out the other day on a mission- 
ary journey, I heard of a man who had been preaching 
on modern improvements, and amongst others, of the 
merciful way of making war since the invention of 
gunpowder, which proved so much easier a death than 
that inflicted by the ancient weapons. He got rightly 
served for his pains, for they have called him the gun- 
powder parson ever since." Then he added, " I preach 
Christ crucified ; and when that ceases to be my only 
theme, may I cease from the pulpit." Sometimes he 
remarked, " 1 once heard a sermon indeed in Surry 
Chapel ; it was from Dr. Chalmers — O what a man 
that is — O what a lustre his humility gives to the 
powers of his great mind, and to the grace that is in 
his heart." He wrote in a volume of Chalmers's ser- 
mons — " Many books I began to read I could not 
finish ; but these admirable discourses so attracted my 
attention, that I could not take my eye from them, till 
after I had read the last page with supreme regret." 

The members of the London Missionary Society, 
who belong to different religious societies connected 
with the various places of dissenting worship in the 



184 



Missionary communion. Ireland. 



metropolis, are in the habit of concluding their week 
of business by what they call a missionary communion. 
The communicants are admitted by tickets from their 
ministers, who are supposed to know their religious 
state. In these meetings Mr. Rowland Hill felt a real 
interest and pleasure, and considered them as excellent 
means for the promotion of Christian love at home, 
as well as sympathy with the miseries of the heathen 
world. He attended them regularly, addressed those 
who were present on such occasions with great effect, 
and returned home in a highly spiritual and serious 
frame of mind. The excellent Dr. SteinkopfF had the 
same view of the use of these meetings, and frequently 
went to them. 

In the year 1796 Mr. Rowland Hill repeated his 
visit to Ireland. He had found a ready access to the 
affections of the pious people in Dublin, and his name 
has ever been held in high veneration in that city. 
Letters to him from his Irish hearers bear testimony 
to his zealous exertions there, and to the commence- 
ment at that period of the work of religion amongst 
them. A clergyman pressed him to go into the North, 
to "proclaim the word of life in his parish," where he 
tells him that notwithstanding the numbers of Papists 
among his people, a work of grace was going on. His 
vivid imagination, animated manner, liveliness of dis- 
position, and rooted abhorrence of Popery, suited in a 
high degree the pious Protestants who crowded around 
him. Letters still in existence from his Irish friends 
express their assurance of his deep sympathy in the 
awful scenes of 1797- The clergyman just referred to 
tells him, "not less than 15,000 lives have been lost in 
the course of the rebellion, out of which number some- 
thing less than 1,000 might be on the part of the 



Mr. Bowland Hill himted to Scotland. 185 

loyalists. In our contest with the French our loss has 
been small ; the rebels who joined them were Papists, 
with scarcely the exception of a single Protestant, 
and would no doubt have committed many outrages, 
had they not been restrained by the interference of 
the French officers, to whose humane exertions the 
Bishop of Killala owes his life." Wherever he went 
his presence inspired such confidence and regard, that 
those whom he admitted to any degree of intimacy, 
looked upon him as a friend and a brother, to whom 
they might appeal for advice and consolation in the 
difficulties and trials by which they were afterwards 
surrounded; and their experience in such circumstances 
would have allowed them to have addressed him in the 
words of Ovid : 

O mihi care quidem semper, sed tempore duro 
Cognite, res postquam procubuere meae. 

In the year 1798 Mr. Rowland Hill paid his first 
visit to Scotland. He was invited there by a few 
zealous persons who had engaged the Circus in Edin- 
burgh as a chapel, on the plan of the Tabernacle in 
London. They requested him to come and open it, 
and spend five or six weeks with them. He was 
pleased with the idea, and readily acceded to their 
solicitation. The Circus had been secured for one year 
only, by way of experiment, and it was agreed to fix 
the hours of service at seven o'clock in the morning, 
and six in the evening, that there might be no inter- 
ference with the regular attendance of persons at 
their own places of worship ; a plan of which 
Mr. Rowland Hill entirely approved. He published 
on his return the journal of his tour, with a dedication 
to Robert Haldane, Esq., the gentleman who was 
deputed to invite him to Edinburgh. He informs us 



18f) Places visited by him in his journey . 

in this work that he left Wotton-under-edge on the 
"Lord's day, July 15, 1798," after the afternoon 
service, and preached at Frampton, on his road to the 
North, in the evening. After preaching daily at 
various places in his way, he reached Macclesfield on 
July 19. He says — "A visit to this town was a peculiar 
pleasure and satisfaction to my mind. Mr. Simpson, 
the minister of the new church, is my dear old friend. 
Our acquaintance commenced at Cambridge. Being of 
the same college, our custom was to read with each 
other the Greek Testament, and other evangelical pub- 
lications ; these meetings we always concluded with 
prayer. The university was then almost in total 
darkness. No wonder, therefore, if, for such exercises, 
and for some other strong symptoms of a metJiodistical 
hias, we were speedily marked, and had the honour of 
being pointed at as the curiosities of the day. This 
did good. Others soon joined us to the number of ten 
or twelve. Some of them were Nicodemian disciples; 
others have proved bold and useful ministers ; and 
some of them, I trust, have been taken to glory. 
Blessed be God, things now bear a more pleasing 
aspect in that university. The gospel is at present 
not only faithfully preached by Mr. Simeon and others, 
but many young men are training up, who I trust will, 
if worldly prudence and the fear of man prevent not, 
prove a blessing to the church, by preaching with 
fervency and zeal her long-neglected doctrines to the 
consciences of their hearers." 

After preaching in Mr. Simpson's church to a "very 
serious and crowded congregation," he proceeded to 
Manchester. The minister of St. Clement's, Mr. Smythe, 
with whom his acquaintance commenced in Dublin, 
welcomed him to his pulpit, where he addressed "a 



Places visited by him in his journey, 187 

golemn and attentive auditory" on the eternal obliga- 
tions of the law, and oui' free salvation by the gospel : 
2 Cor. iii, 1 8.^ He passed no day without preaching, 
till he came to Penrith, where he was told no one 
would receive him, on which he remarks, "I hope 
some gospel hero in the neighbourhood will make it 
a point to besiege that town. The inhabitants, as 
report says, are awfully dead in trespasses and sins. 
I am informed that even the few dissenters there, are 
dissenters from many of the invaluable truths of the 
gospel." At Carlisle he officiated in a small chapel 
built by Lady Glenorchy, and passed the evening at 
the Grapes Inn, but could not prevail on the landlord 
to take any thing for his accommodation. " This," he 
says, " I mention as a token of respect for the kind 
reception given to a stranger, as it was done in the 
name of the Lord Jesus. They gave much more than 
a cup of cold water to an unworthy prophet in thy 
name ; may they receive much more than a prophet's 
reward ! " His first evening in Scotland was spent at 
Langham, where there was a fair, and he regrets, with 
some very proper remarks on the evil tendency of such 
scenes, that he was obliged to spend the night in this 
uncongenial situation. To avoid the noise and con- 
fusion, he took a solitary walk by the river s side. 
There a gentleman, whom he conceived to be the 
minister of the parish, offered him an asylum in his 
house from the disquietude of the town ; but having 
procured a private lodging he declined it. While con- 
versing with this kind individual, two of his unknown 
Edinburgh friends, INIessrs. Haldane and Aikman, 

' He was a great admirer of the work on this subject by Bcart, called " A 
Vindication of the Eternal Law and Everlasting Gospel." He often recommended 
it to my attentive perusal. 



188 



He opens the Circus at Edi7ihurgh. 



passed by. He discovered that they were itinerants, 
on the errand of preaching the gospel, and had the 
gratification of their company during the remainder of 
the evening. At Hawick he saw, for the first time, 
a Scotch funeral, conducted without prayer, or the 
presence of a minister, and observed to a bystander, 
" Your funerals are soon over." A loquacious old 
woman told him, prayers were no use to the dead. 
This he admitted, but "suggested that the people of 
Scotland lost an excellent opportunity of doing good to 
the living, if they could do nothing for the dead." He 
adds, " I was surprised at this omission in Scotland ; 
but considering that a Scotsman always stands as an 
antipode to the Pope, it appeared probable, that papal 
prayers for the dead determined John Knox, their 
valuable but uncouth reformer, against all prayers at a 
funeral whatever." 

At Edinburgh Mr. Rowland Hill was received by 
Mr. James Haldane, at his house in George Street, 
where he says " nothing was wanting, but more grati- 
tude and thankfulness on my part, for such a kind and 
affectionate reception." On the day after his arrival, 
Sunday, July 29> he opened the Circus. His text was 
the prayer of Moses, Exodus xxxiii, 14, 15, If thy 
presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. In 
the morning the attendance consisted only of a few 
hundreds, but in the evening the place was full. His 
subject was, 1 Cor. i, 22, 23, 24, and he " employed 
some time in showing Paul's method of treating his 
proud Corinthian hearers." " How very different," he 
proceeds, "is the immediate and direct simplicity of 
the apostle, compared to too many of the cold and 
formal productions of the present day. O the sim- 
plicity that is in Christ! How lovely in its effects 



Preaches on Calton Hill. 



189 



while the minister preaches just as he feels, wisely- 
regulated by the word of God, and warmly animated 
with a desire to bring salvation to the sinner's heart ! " 

Mr. Hill's method of preaching was a complete 
novelty in Scotland, except to a few aged persons who 
recollected the visits of Whitefield to that country. An 
anecdote in a Scotch pvilpit was an experiment that no 
Presbyterian would have ventured on ; but those told 
by Mr. Hill were so lively and affecting, that his 
hearers were raised to the highest pitch of interest. 
An excellent Scotch minister- who was present on 
many of these occasions thus describes their effect : 
" During some of his sermons the eternal world 
appeared to be next door to us, and but a step between 
us and the judgment day, which seemed to cause a 
shaking among our dry bones. Not that Mr. Hill 
preached a different gospel from what we had been 
accustomed to hear, for at that time, as well as now, 
there were various able ministers of the New Testa- 
ment, both in and out of the establishment, but there 
was a general formal sameness, seldom what was 
striking or catching." 

The singularity of the stranger's manner, the fer- 
vour of his address, and the brilliant powers of his 
active and energetic mind, soon drew vast multitudes 
around him. The Circus, large as it was, could not 
contain half the numbers who flocked to hear him ; 
and they cried out that the galleries were giving way 
under the pressure of the crowd. He accordingly 
went forth to the Calton Hill, where he preached from 
a platform to a mass of people, amounting to at least 
ten thousand in number. The spot was well adapted 

^ The Rev. John Campbell, the well known missionary to Africa, who kindly 
communicated to me his recollections of the visits of Mr. Hill to Scotland. 



190 



Scene at Glasgow. 



to such a purpose ; the platform was placed in the 
centre of a sort of natural bason, and the green slopes 
which surrounded it were covered with innumerable 
immortal beings, silent as the breathless evening of 
autumn, fixed in deep attention to the words that 
issued from the sonorous and commanding voice of the 
speaker, as he delivered, in all the majesty and dignity 
of his office, his message of mercy to the lost and 
ruined sinner. The retiring of the multitude under 
the most solemn impressions was, indeed, a touching 
sight ; every person seemed deep in thought, and num- 
bers were, for the first time, absorbed in the concerns 
of their souls and of eternity. The old women, as they 
looked out of their doors at the slowly passing stream 
of human beings, observing a party of soldiers among 
them, exclaimed, " Eh, sirs, what will become of us 
now ! what will this turn to ! the very sodgers are 
ganging to hear preaching." It was always a principle 
with Mr, Rowland Hill to expect great things from 
his labours : " While we are straitened," he says, 
" in our expectations, the blessing is withheld ; but 
when our hearts are enlarged, the more we ask, the 
more we have/' 

The same interest which had been excited by 
Mr. Hill's preaching in Edinburgh accompanied him 
in a short excursion into the Western Highlands. He 
first reached Glasgow, on August 13th, time enough 
to preach in the evening in the churchyard of the High 
Church. The scene he describes as " most solemn." 
" Underneath us," he adds, " were the remains, I may 
venture to say, of millions, waiting for the resurrection. 
Here I stood on a widely extended space, covered, or 
nearly covered, with the living, all immortals — five 
thousand, I should suppose, at least. What solemn 



Pa fs/ey. FaI in biirgh. 



191 



work to address such multitudes ! Who is sufficient for 
these things V Though greatly exhausted by his exer- 
tions, he " could not refuse the request to preach next 
morning" at eight o'clock, when he proceeded to 
Paisley, and preached in the yard of the church over 
which Witherspoon once presided, to an assembly 
nearly as large as that at Glasgow. He says, "my 
soul loves Paisley, for there I believe Christians love 
eacHT other. May the precious leaven that is evident 
there spread itself through the North. I grieve to 
find so many separated by human laws on earth, who 
are all to be united in one, by divine love, in heaven 
and glory." 

The return of Mr. Rowland Hill to Edinburgh was 
marked by an increase even of the immense crowds 
who had previously flocked to hear him. On the 
Calton Hill he now calculates the numbers at fifteen 
thousand, in addressing whom his principal aim was to 
alarm the sinner. He experienced a most hospitable 
reception at Melville house, whose noble owner was 
glad to have the benefit of his services in his family 
worship. The last time he preached on Calton Hill, 
it is supposed the congregation amounted to nearly 
twenty thousand, though the rain threatened. He thus 
expresses the feelings of his mind on the occasion — " to 
be clear from the blood of such a multitude, and to 
declare to them the whole counsel of God, what wis- 
dom and grace does it require ! " On this occasion, a 
collection was made for the charity workhouse, which 
was thankfully received by the magistrates of the city. 

Thus did this zealous messenger of Christ labour in 
Scotland ; and it was believed that during his first visit 
to the North, at least two hundred souls were con- 
verted to God, some of whom had been notorious for 



192 



Rotherham. Wotton. 



their vice and profligacy. At Rotherham, on his way 
home, he preached on a Sunday evening to ten thou- 
sand people in the open air, on the necessity of conver- 
sion, and repentance unto life, from Acts iii, 19- When 
he began, he was annoyed by the bells of a neighbour- 
ing church ; but as soon as they were told what was 
going on, the ringers civilly desisted. He was very 
near, however, meeting with a much more serious in- 
convenience. A madman rushed through the congre- 
gation, brandishing a drawn sword with great vehe- 
mence, and struggled hard to reach him. He was 
speedily disarmed by the people, without injury to 
any one ; and the tranquillity of the assemblage was 
but little disturbed by the event. Mr. Hill arrived at 
Wotton, on Saturday, September 2Snd. He concludes 
his journal with these words : — " I have now finished 
a nine weeks' gospel tour of full 1,200 miles ; have 
preached in much weakness to many thousands ; and 
have been more or less engaged on different calls, near 
eighty times, with no other calamity than a little indis- 
position for a few days, and the temporary lameness of 
the same horse which conveyed me through all my 
journey, excepting the short respite he required till he 
could overtake me on the road. Without also the 
least personal insult from any quarter, excepting a 
small share of a distant hiss of false aspersion, and I 
trust unjust reflection. For them I only quote that 
fine expression in our church liturgy, ' pardon our per- 
secutors and slanderers, and turn their hearts.' 

" Thus again am I restored to the spot I love as a 
place of temporary retirement ; a place well situated as 
a sphere of usefulness, and dear to me, as it was one 
of the first fruits of my youthful ministry. I bless God, 
many souls were then called and saved by grace, and 



Athnonithn of the Gpneral Asspmhly. 193 

many of them I trust are gone to glory. Tlie congre- 
gation is as large as in the best of our days ; notwith- 
standing, I fear but little real work has of late been 
done. From whence, my God, is this suspension ? Is 
the fault in me, or is it in them ? Or is it that I am 
to be called elsewhere, by being driven to give a less 
portion of my time to a people, who, * by seeing they 
see, and do not perceive, and by hearing they hear, and 
do not understand?'" There are but few diligent 
ministers of the gospel who will not feel and appre- 
ciate these remarks. 

The unprecedented exertions of Mr. Rowland Hill 
in Scotland, and the increase of itinerant preaching, 
excited the attention of the General Assembly, who 
thought it their duty to publish, what they entitled 
their Pastoral Admonition, warning the population 
against countenancing such irregularities, and accom- 
panying their advice with some severe censures on the 
conduct and motives of the travelling preachers. 
Mr. Hill, in his observations on the Established Church 
of Scotland, addressed to James Haldane, Esq. had 
himself made some remarks which were by no means 
calculated to allay the angry feelings of the body to 
whom they referred. To these he appended Reflec- 
tions on some Party Distinctions in England." With 
regard to establishments he observes, that " even the 
outward profession of Christianity is no small blessing 
to any nation ; and I should conceive, without deviat- 
ing from the laws of liberty, or of Christianity, the 
rulers of the earth may, and ought to support and pro- 
tect it." Upon this principle he declared himself a 
friend to establishments ; but they must be such as 
would permit him to have an " uncontrolled right over 
his own pulpit," and " allow him the assistance of 

o 



194 



Establish merits . 



those whose ministrations he believed would be to the 
spiritual advancement of the people of his charge." He 
adds, after his own manner, " but such admission, say- 
some, would be riding upon the back of all order and 
decorum ; happy should I be to ride upon the back of 
such order and decorum, till I had ridden them to 
death." ^ " By this primitive mode of procedure," in 
his opinion, "a great number of valuable ministers 
have been raised up ; some from the army, some from 
the navy. We bless God," he adds, " for the names of 
a Captain Scott, and a Captain Joss ; for captains have 
tongues and brains as well as doctors." That there 
are defects in all establishments can neither be doubted 
nor denied ; but once admit the principle, that an]/ 
individual may infringe the rules and order of his reli- 
gious community according to his own views, and we 
introduce such elements of irregularity and confusion, 
as must eventually destroy all discipline, government, 
and real usefulness. There are abundant spheres of 
exertion for every Christian ; and it matters not much 
in what circle within the pale of the church a man 
moves, provided he fully fills out its circumference. It 
was on this point of preaching, and the power of 
the stated minister to admit whom he would into his 
pulpit, that Mr. Rowland Hill differed, both with the 
churchman and the presbyterian ; nor could he see, 
that an objection, which he raised himself to this mode 
of procedure, is amongst the many unanswerable argu- 
ments which are to be brought against it. " I know 
also," he says, "that this view of matters will con- 
siderahly lessen the idea of ministerial importance, 

3 I once asked him why he called his carriage horses order and decorum— Oh," 
he answered, " they said in the north, ' Mr. Hill rides upon the backs of order and 

decorum' so I called one of my horses order and the other decorum, that they 

might tell the truth in one way if they did not in another." 



Effects of controversy. 



195 



when the preacher is found promiscuously among all 
sorts of charactei'sr This had, however, no weight 
with him, because he conceived the mode he adopted 
as consonant " with God's own method of sending 
forth his labourers." This one idea occupied such an 
immoveable position in his mind, that it became the 
hinge upon which all its motions turned, the centre 
from which they sprung, the point to Avhich they 
reverted. 

Mr. Rowland Hill's controversy with the General 
Assembly marred both the pleasure and usefulness of 
his second journey to Scotland, It was carried on 
with vehemence in letter after letter, and pamphlet 
after pamphlet. It engrossed all his sermons, and was 
the perpetual topic of his conversation. To ridicule 
their Admonition seemed his chief object. It is true 
the smile was often turned against his opponents ; but 
" probably," observes a shrewd and pious Scotchman, 
** Satan was clapping his shoulder and whispering, well 
done, Rowland — it is far better for you to expend your 
ammunition against the General Assembly than against 
my kingdom — I thank you, for I have not lost one 
follower during this second visit of yours." True it 
was, that he was caught in this snare — not one conver- 
sion was ever proved to have taken place during this 
visit ; but there is every reason to believe he after- 
wards saw and regretted his error. Thus not only 
his virtues, but his failings, will be a lesson to the 
gospel minister : and if a spirit emancipated from the 
incumbrances of the material world, has any retro- 
spective interest in the scenes which it has quitted, or 
any cognizance of its memory being cherished in the 
breasts of the living, his would at this instant desire, 
that not only the excellences of his character should 

o 2 



196 Mr, Rowland HilVs second visit to Scotland, 

be held forth as an example, but that the errors into 
which he fell should also be recorded, as dangers to 
be carefully avoided. This was assuredly his feeling 
while on earth. When observing that some biogra- 
phers had painted the characters of good men as though 
they had no faults, he used to say earnestly — " Well, I 
hope no one will ever write in this way about me, a 
poor miserable sinner. ' 

As may be expected, from the foregoing observa- 
tions, the journal of Mr. Hill's second tour in Scot- 
land contains but little matter to which we can advert 
with profit. His time and his talents seemed entirely 
taken up with attacking the General Assembly. On 
his road he paid a visit to Mr. Robinson, of Leicester, 
and preached in his church. Our first acquaintance," 
he says, " commenced at Cambridge ; he was then 
pointed at, with myself, as being out of the common 
way. Since then, however, blessed be God ! things 
are considerably altered for the better in that seat of 
learning." The crowds, it is true, on Calton Hill, were 
still large, but there were no evidences of conversions 
to God. His account of the anxiety to hear in the 
neighbourhood of Forres is very striking. " The 
people travel almost throughout the night, that they 
may reach a morning sermon. From twenty miles 
around, and some even from a greater distance, they 
flock from every quarter, and hear with a peculiar 
seriousness and attention ; while not much less, and 
sometimes many more, than a thousand, or nearly 
two thousand people would attend, and that, too, in a 
country where the inhabitants were by no means 
numerous, and where the Gaelic is in general use 
among the common people." Mr. Rowland Hill did 
noX return to Scotland for more than twenty years 



Mr. Ro IV I and HiWs second visit to Scotland. 197 

after this second journey. He was in his eightieth 
year when he paid his last visit to Edinburgh, the 
scenes of which will be reserved for another part of 
this volume. His mode of preaching will form the 
subject of the next chapter. 



198 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Mr. Rowland Hiirs preachi?ig. 

Mr. Rowland Hill may be said to have been a 
preacher for more than seventy years. A cottage on 
his father's estate was the scene of his first attempts to 
expound the Scriptures. Some of the tenantry attended 
there to hear him, which, coming to the ears of Sir 
Rowland, he determined to inquire into the truth of 
the report before he noticed it to his son. He accord- 
ingly asked a half-witted boy, " Who preaches at your 
mother s house ? " The lad replied, " The young man 
that fettled mother's clock;" and Sir Rowland, not 
being aware that the young preacher had amused him- 
self in repairing the old woman's clock,^ supposed he 
had been misinformed, consequently no interruption 
was given to the preaching in the cottage. To those 
who have never heard this justly popular preacher, the 
most vivid description will convey no adequate concep- 
tion of the unique mode of his address, and of his sin- 
gularly dignified and commanding appearance in the 
pulpit ; nor do such of his sermons as have been 
printed afford the slightest illustration of the style of 
his natural eloquence. It was an uninterrupted stream 
of ideas from a ^arm heart and fertile imagination, 

' He was very fond of this employment. Once at a friend's house he had re- 
tired, as the company supposed, before preaching, to consider his sermon ; but on 
his host's entering the room to inform him that the time had arrived for going to the 
place of worship, he found him with an old clock, all to pieces on the table. 
Mr, Hill said — " I have been mending your old clock, and I will finish it to- 
morrow." He preached with more than usual ease and fervour, and drew several 
beautiful images from the occupation in which his friend, to his surprise, had found 
him engaged. 



Mr. Rowland HilVn preaching. 



199 



mingled with every species of similitude that suggested 
itself to his mind at the moment. Robert Hall said 
of him — " no man has ever drawn, since the days of 
our Saviour, such sublime images from nature ; here 
Mr. Hill excels every other man." Indeed, his excur- 
sive mind gathered tribute to his Master's cause from 
every portion of the visible creation ; and as he de- 
scribed his anticipations of the invisible glories, and 
perfect holiness and happiness of the unrevealed scenes 
of heaven, it might have been thought at times that, 
like an angel, he had seen them. The limits of this 
work will allow only a few specimens of his most 
striking observations in the pulpit, but these cannot 
be omitted. 

A few years ago, when making a preaching tour in 
Yorkshire, he paid a visit to an old friend, who said to 
him, " Mr. Hill, it is just sixty-five years since I first 
heard you preach, and I remember your text, and part 
of your sermon." " 'Tis more than I do," was his 
remark. " You told us," his friend proceeded, that 
some people were very squeamish about the delivery 
of different ministers, who preached the same gospel. 
You said, suppose you were attending to hear a will 
read, where you expected a legacy to be left you, would 
you employ the time when it was reading in criti- 
cising the manner in which the lawyer read it ? No, 
you would not ; you would be giving all ear to hear if 
any thing was left to you, and how much it was. That 
is the way I would advise you to hear the gospel." 

The energy of his manner at times, and the power 
of his voice, were almost overwhelming. Once, at 
Wotton, he was completely carried away by the im- 
petuous rush of his feelings, and, raising himself to 
his full stature, he exclaimed — " Because I am in ear- 



200 



Mr. Ron Unid HilCs preac/ihig. 



nest, men call me an enthusiast ; but I am not ; mine 
are the words of truth and soberness. When I first 
came into this part of the country, I was walking on 
yonder hill ; I saw a gravel pit fall in, and bury three 
human beings alive. I lifted up my voice for help so 
loud that I was heard in the town below, at a distance 
of a mile ; help came, and rescued two of the poor 
sufferers. No one called me an entliuslast then ; and 
when I see eternal destruction ready to fall upon poor 
sinners, and about to entomb them irrecoverably in an 
eternal mass of woe, and call aloud on them to escape, 
shall I be called an enthusiast now ? No, sinner, I am 
not an enthusiast in so doing ; I call on thee aloud to 
fly for refuge, to the hope set before thee in the gospel 
of Christ Jesus." 

He had a singular facility of suiting his reasoning 
to the capacities of the uneducated, without seeming 
to be aiming low ; bringing them insensibly up to him, 
and not, as is too often the case, offending them by a 
direct and visible effort to descend on their account. 
If a preacher attempts this, the lower orders either 
see it, and are displeased, or else they look upon him 
as one who can soar no higher. The benevolent man 
who says to the object of his charity, by word or 
manner, " This plain gift is good enough for you," 
destroys all sensation of gratitude in the person he 
relieves ; but it is possible to befriend a distressed fel- 
low creature, without making him feel the lowness of 
his situation ; so it is possible to come down to the 
level of a poor man's intellect, without giving him 
offence, by letting him know with what vast con- 
descension a minister is trying to do it. The following 
is an instance of Mr. Rowland Hill's management of 
this difficulty. He was preaching for the London 



Jlr. Rowland HiU\ pvedcliing. 201 

]\Iissioiitiiy Society, to a congregation of plain farmers 
and their labourers. Now, it is a very common objec- 
tion with persons of this description, that the heathen 
have sufficient light, and that, therefore, we might let 
them alone, and do more at home. His object was to 
reason them out of this opinion, and he addressed 
them thus — " I admit that the heathen have some 
natural light, but they do not use even this aright. 
Now, suppose the whole family in a farm-house, 
assembled round the large kitchen fire on a winters 
evening, all peaceful and happy. Presently, the stable- 
man oj)ens the door, and cries out, * Master, master, 
the thieves are robbing the hen-roost.* Up they all 
start ; the farmer rushes to his closet for his lantern ; 
he lights the candle, and runs out, and holding up the 
light nearly to his head, advances with cautious steps. 
The wheel-barrow has been left in the way, and over 
it the good man falls — and why ?— because he has no 
light ? — no, because he used it improperly. Thus it 
is with the heathen." 

Once, in a manufacturing town, the subject of his 
preaching was the influences of the Holy Spirit. On 
his way to the chapel he stopped several times, and 
appeared to be watching with interest the ascent of 
the smoke from the factory chimneys. In his sermon 
he wished to describe the obedience of a willing soul 
to the gentlest breathings of the Spirit of God, and 
said — " I have been watching the smoke, as it went 
up from the numerous chimneys around me ; there 
was scarcely any air, yet how obediently it moved in 
the direction of the softest breeze. So it is with the 
regenerate soul, when God breathes upon its renewed 
powers^ — He makes it wiUuig in the day of his i^ower.'" 

A very favourite subject with Mr. Hill was the in- 



202 Mr. Roivland HHPs preaching. 

separable union of justification and sanctifi cation. He 
sometimes commenced his sermons on it in these 
words, — " God cannot make us happy, except he make 
us holy; therefore, whom he justifies he necessarily 
also sanctifies." Then he would add, " many are 
willing to be justified, but desire not to be sanctified. 
Not so with me ; I can say of justification and of 
sanctification like the child, who replied, when asked 
which he loved best, his father or his mother, ^ / love 
them both best." " 

When speaking of the love and holiness of God, he 
seemed to rise above the world, and his countenance 
beamed with an almost unearthly illumination. Once 
he endeavoured to convey to his hearers, by a variety 
of striking illustrations, some idea of his conceptions 
of the divine love ; but suddenly cast his eyes towards 
heaven, and exclaimed — " Bat I am unable to reach 
the lofty theme ! — yet I do not think that the smallest 
fish that swims in the boundless ocean, ever complains 
of the immeasurable vastness of the deep. So it is 
with me ; I can plunge with my puny capacity into a 
subject, the immensity of which I shall never be able 
fully to comprehend !" 

No man was ever more practical in his preaching ; 
let your light shine, was his constant exhortation. " If 
the sun shine," he would say, " on a dull brick or 
stone, they reflect none of its beams ; there is nothing 
in them capable of this ; nor is there in an ungodly 
man, any natural power of reflecting the light of God. 
But let the sun shine upon a diamond, and see what 
rays of sparkling beauty it emits. Just so the Christian 
who has the graces of the Spirit ; when God shines on 
his soul, beams of celestial loveliness are reflected by 
him on the world." " The Christian's character," he 



Mr. Roiriand HiWs preaching* 203 

said, " should savour of holiness. The promise is, / 
will be as the dew unto Israel: and how sweet is the 
fragrance of the flower, after the gentle falling of the 
dew — so must the true believer be, under the soft dis- 
tilment of the droppings of heaven on his heart." 
" Cultivate," he often urged, " a spirit of love. Love 
is the diamond amongst the jewels of the believer's 
breastplate. The other graces shine, like the precious 
stones of nature, with their own peculiar lustre and 
various hues ; but the diamond is white — now in white 
all the colours are united : so in love is centered every 
other Christian grace and virtue — love is the fulfilling 
of the law. It is the only source of true obedience 
to the commands of God." " If we love God," he 
used to say, " we must necessarily love that holy law, 
which is a transcript of his divine mind and will. 
Some people will tell you that if you would gain 
heaven, you must pass through a self-denying course of 
the practice of virtue and obedience — they make reli- 
gion house of correction work — no, no, I love the ser- 
vice of my God ; like the bird, I fly at liberty, on the 
wings of my obedience to his holy will." Frequently 
he described the nature of Christian obedience by 
saying, " The grace of God begets, in the man that is 
born of the Spirit, a natural hatred to sin, though he 
loved it in his old estate. The vulture's nature is to 
prey, with horrid preference, on the putrid carcasses of 
the dead. But did you ever see the gentle dove gorging 
this loathsome food ? So the sinner feeds with delight 
on the nauseous enjoyments of his iniquity, like the 
carrion-eating bird of prey, while the regenerate soul 
has a holy disgust of all that is offensive to its heavenly 
nature." 

His views of the efficacy of prayer were singularly 



204 



Mr. Rowland HiWs preachings 



happy. " We know," were his words, " that the in- 
finite God cannot be moved or actually drawn nearer 
to us by prayer, but prayer draws the Christian nearer 
to God. If a boat is attached to a large vessel by a 
rope, the person in the former does not bring the ship 
nearer to him by his pulling the rope, but he brings 
the boat, and himself in it, nearer to the ship. So 
the more fervently we pray, the nearer we bring our- 
selves to the Lord most high. The Christian is there- 
fore enjoined to pray without ceasing', not that he 
can be always engaged in the positive act, but he 
ought to have what I call a holy aptitude for prayer. 
The bird is not always on the wing, but he is ready to 
fly in an instant ; so the believer is not always on the 
wing of prayer, but he has such a gracious aptitude 
for this exercise, that he is prepared in an instant, 
when in danger or need, to fly for refuge to his God. 
In all the avocations of time the child of God will 
never lose sight of his heavenly Father. I have often 
seen a little child following his parent in the fields, 
and stooping now and then to gather a few flowers. 
He looks up and sees him at a distance ; the little 
creature runs and gets up to him again, afraid he 
should go too far away. So the Christian, while 
gathering a few flowers from the world, suifers his God 
to be often a distance from him ; but the instant he 
perceives that he is alone, he runs to reach again his 
Father, Protector, and Friend," 

He had a happy mode of contrasting the light of 
reason with the light of religion. " By the light of 
reason," he would say, " we cast a sort of glaring illu- 
sion around ourselves ; but if confided in, it tends only 
to obscure our vision of more exalted glories. Illumi- 
nate this town; the streets are light, while the heavens 



Mr. Rowland II llfs preaching. 205 

are lost in darkness ; but when the day breaks forth, 
both the earth and the sky become visible. So the 
sparhsofour own Mndluig\ while they shed an artificial 
brilliancy for a short distance around us, involve 
the scenes above in shadows even darker than those 
of night ; but if the day spring from on high dawn 
in the soul, we have clear views both of earth and 
heaven." 

The effect of his bursts of eloquence was much 
heightened by their flashing forth unstudied, the in- 
stant the idea, oft in reference to some present object, 
arose in his mind. On one occasion, when past the 
age usually allotted to man, he was preaching on a 
summer's evening to an immense crowd, assembled 
partly within and partly without the walls of a chapel. 
A window was taken out, and he stood on the seat for 
a pulpit, so that all heard him. Ere he concluded, the 
sun, in unclouded glory, had just reached the edge of 
the horizon ; he pointed to it, and exclaimed in a tone 
of the sublimest energy, " See you the sun, how 
majestically and brightly it sheds its parting beams 
around you ! I have heard that the rays of the setting 
sun produce a most salutary effect on the vegetable 
world — O that my setting sun, which must soon go 
down in death, may, during the evening of my days, 
be more and more blessed, in shedding a beneficial 
light on the trees the Lord hath planted and is water- 
ing to his glory." 

The real secret of Mr. Rowland Hill's preaching 
having been at times somewhat tinctured with the 
ludicrous, was, that he seemed as though he were 
unable to restrain the rapid succession of ideas which 
crowded into his mind, and tended to explain his 
meaning. It will be easily believed that the majority 



20(j Mr. Rowland HilVs preaching. 

of the stories told of his pulpit peculiarities are with- 
out the slightest foundation ; nor did he ever yield to 
the force of the vis comica, which had so great a 
natural power over his faculties, except for the sake of 
some particular object. For instance, when he was 
preaching to very plain people, he said, I want you to 
have a holy aversion to sin. Do you know what I mean 
by aversion ? Suppose any of you were to put your 
hand into your pocket and feel a toad there, you would 
draw it out instantly from an aversion to the animal. 
Now my desire is, that when conscious of the pre- 
sence of sin, you should have just such an aversion 
as this to it — a hatred of it, and disgust at its horrid 
nature." One day, when speaking of vanity in dress, 
and the inconsistency of it in Christians, he looked 
archly and said, " I am, like old John Bunyan, thank- 
ful to say, that I have only one man in my country 
congregation who wears a pigtail'' In his collection 
sermons he sometimes gave vent to singular ideas. 
" There is," he exclaimed in one of them, " a perpetual 
frost in the pockets of some wealthy people ; as soon 
as they put their hands into them they are frozen, 
and unable to draw out their purses. Had I my way 
I would hang all misers, but the reverse of the com- 
mon mode ; I would hang them up by the heels, that 
their money might run out of their pockets and make 
a famous scramble for you to pick up and put in the 
plate." If he saw any thing wrong in the place where 
he was preaching he seemed as though he could not help 
adverting to it. On a wet day a number of persons 
took shelter in his chapel, during a heavy shower, while 
he was in the pulpit ; he remarked, " Many people are 
greatly to be blamed for making their religion a cloke, 
but I do not think those are much better who make it 



Mr. Roivland HilVs 'preaching. 



207 



an umhrellar It is impossible not to acknowledge, as 
he did freely, that he was at times too ready to use 
expressions calculated to produce a smile on the 
countenances of his hearers. Still, while the truth of 
this is readily confessed, the exaggerations must be 
contradicted. 

The few sermons Mr. Rowland Hill published 
were written by him from recollection, or from notes 
taken by others at the time of their delivery, but give 
no idea of the freedom and perfect ease of his manner. 
He placed no restraint upon his flow of feeling ; the 
exuberant fountain of his mind seemed capable of an 
endless stream of every possible variety of thought and 
image. Perhaps the best specimen of his printed 
sermons is the one preached on Sunday, December 4, 
1803, to the volunteers assembled at Surry Chapel, 
from Psalm xx, 7, 8. It was on this occasion that he 
introduced his hymn to the tune of " God save the 
King." The words were. 

Come, thou Incarnate Word, 
Gird on thy mighty sword, 

Our prayer attend ; 
Come, and thy people bless, 
And give thy word success, 
Spirit of Holiness, 

On us descend. 

O may thy servant be 
Fill'd with sweet liberty, 

Clothed with power ! 
Bid, Lord, the dead arise 
By thy almighty voice ; 
May we in thee rejoice 

In this glad hour. 

After the sermon, the hymn, which he wrote to the 
tune of " Rule Britannia,'* was sung with wonderful 
effect by the immense congregation, all standing. 



208 



Mr. Roivland HHPs preaching. 



THE KINGDOM OF IMMANUEL EXALTED. 

When Jesus first at Heaven's coinmand 
Descended from his azure throne, 
Attending angels join'd his praise, 
Who claim'd the kingdoms for his own. 
Hail, Immanuel — Imnianuel we'll adore, 
And sound his fame from shore to shore. 

Girt with omnipotence supreme, 
The powers of darkness trembling stood 
To hear the dire decree, and feel 
The vengeance of the mighty God ! 
Hail, Immanuelj &c. 

Not with the sword that warrior? wear, 
But with a sceptre dipt in blood, 
He bends the nations to obey, 
And rules them by the love of God. 
Hail, Immanuel, &c. 

O may the memory of his name 
Inspire our armies for the fight ,• 
Our vaunting foes shall die with shame, 
Or quit our coasts with hasty flight. 
Hail, Immanuel, &c. 

In his salvation is nur boast, 
And in the strength of Israel's God 
Our troops shall lift their banners high, 
Our navies spread their flags abroad. 
Hail, Immanuel, &c. 

Soon may the kingdoms of the earth, 
From sin and Satan's dreadful thrall. 
By thy great power and grace be freed, 
And Christ alone be all in all. 

Hail, Immanuel, &c. 

Ride on and prosper, King of kings. 
Till all the powers of hell resign 
Their dreadful trophies at thy feet ; 
And endless glory shall be thine. 
Hail, Immanuel, &c. 



In the copy published in his hymn book, Mr. Hill 
omitted the three verses which have reference to the 
particular occasion for which they were composed, and 
added the two following : — 



Mr. RowhiNd JIt/I\- preacJil)io\ 209 

<Jo with thy servants, glorious Lord, 
And bid them tread the tempter down ; 
Be more than conqueror by thy word ; 
And wear the universal crown. 
Hail, Immanuel, &c. 

Soon shall the monster, sin, submit 
His hateful sceptre to thy call ; 
Death, and death's author, soon shall die, 
And J esus Christ be all in all. 

Hail, Immanuel, &c. 

The singing of this last hymn, as it was occasionally 
heard at Surry Chapel, by three thousand people, led 
by a first-rate player on an organ of very superior 
powers, afforded, probably, one of the most inspiring 
examples of congregational music ever heard. This 
was admitted, even by those who disapproved the in- 
troduction of the air into the worship of God. Indeed, 
the singing of Mr. Rowland Hill's London congrega- 
tion v/as a striking proof of what may be effected, by 
proper pains, with this delightful portion of our public 
service, which is too often performed with disgraceful 
negligence. 

In the country, as has been before stated, almost 
every summer evening was spent by Mr. Hill in 
preaching in the villages around his residence. After 
an early dinner, his phaeton drove up to the door, and 
he used his equipage, not in the ostentatious vanities 
of the world, but to carry him to proclaim to the poor 
and the ignorant the way of life and peace. The pea- 
santry all knew his errand, and many of his hearers 
who kept horses, rode to the various places in which he 
was to preach. They greeted him on the road with a 
respectful and affectionate smile, and by the time he 
reached the spot selected for his sermon, he was not 
unfrequently attended by a considerable cavalcade. 
The poor bowed and curtsied as he went along, and 

p 



210 



Mr. Rowland HHPs preaching. 



sometimes a simple-hearted creature would cry out — 
" God bless you, sir ; I wish you a good opportunity." 
When he came to the appointed village, some honest 
farmer often claimed the privilege of providing a stable 
for his horses, and he commenced his labour of love 
amidst the smiles and the prayers of many humble 
followers of the Saviour. In this respect, the latter 
part of his days presented a happy contrast to his 
early life. In one town, a horse dealer, who possessed 
considerable stable room, was determined to have the 
honour of providing for his horses, and no persuasion 
could induce the man to receive the slightest gratuity. 
The kindness he received at times quite overpowered 
him, especially when he reflected on what he had suf- 
fered in his former days ; and on these occasions his 
words were accompanied with an unction and feeling 
that melted the hearts of those who heard him. " O 
my dear hearers," he would say, " may the Lord bring 
home his own precious word to your souls ; may the 
sweet influences of divine grace inspire you with all 
the tenderness of a Saviour's love, and lay you low at 
the foot of his cross. Many a poor man makes a 
bright Christian ; God keeps him humble that he may 
dwell in his heart, and that the beams of his grace may 
shine in his life. I love the poor, the lowly believer. 
See yon evening star, how bright it shines ; how pure, 
how gentle are its rays — but look, it is lower in the 
heavens than those that sparkle with a restless twink- 
ling in the higher regions of the sky. God keeps you 
low that you may shine bright." Then he would sud- 
denly change his image — " Where do the rivers run 
that fertilize our soil — -is it on the barren top of yon- 
der hill ? No, in the vales beneath. If you would 
have the river, whose streams make glad the city of 



Mr. Roivland HilVs "preaching. 



211 



our God, to run through your hearts and enrich them 
to his glory, you must abide in the vale of humility." 
Simple addresses of this kind were understood and 
remembered by his poor hearers; thus his ministry 
remained in their hearts, and his kindness engaged 
their affections. 

The anxiety of Mr. Rowland Hill's mind at times, 
before he entered on the solemn work of preaching, 
was very remarkable. He seemed quite lost in reflec- 
tion, and every now and then ejaculated in a low tone, 
" Lord, help me to preach." On such occasions, too, 
he was absent in the highest degree, and scarcely knew 
what he did. A colonel in the Engineers, to whom 
his ministry had been made useful, was very anxious 
to be introduced to him. In the evening of the day 
on which they were made known to each other, 
Mr. Hill was going to preach at Woolwich, and asked 
his new acquaintance to accompany him in his phaeton. 
A favourite dog jumped into the carriage, and was 
suffered to go with them. The pious officer hoped for 
some conversation; but his* companion appeared uncon- 
scious of his presence, and went on whispering to 
himself the arrangement of his sermon, pulling at the 
same time the hairs out of the dog's back, and spread- 
ing them on the colonel's knee! He was very much 
amused with the absence of the minister for whom he 
had conceived so great a veneration, but said he was 
glad his train of thought was not interrupted, for such 
a sermon he had never heard before as Mr. Hill 
preached that night. 

His ascent of the pulpit stairs in his old age was 
most striking. His venerable figure, his slow and 
solemn step, the evident fulness of his mind wrapt up 
in his subject, his commanding air and perfect self- 

p S 



212 



Mr, Rowland HilVs preaching. 



possession, combined to produce the feeling that his 
people often expressed, " it does us good if we can only 
see him." As soon as he felt a Saviour's love when a 
boy, he rejoiced in proclaiming it to others, despising 
the shame ; and his only grief, when the feebleness of 
age came upon him, was that he could not be a more 
laborious labourer in the vineyard of his Redeemer. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Religions Tract Society. 

In the year 1799 Mr, Rowland Hill assisted in tlie 
formation of the Religious Tract Society. He was 
the chairman of its first committee, and always re- 
garded this excellent institution as one of the most 
useful societies of the age. He contributed to it several 
interesting tracts, which have had a very extensive 
circulation. 

The speeches of Mr. Hill, at public meetings, were 
not less original than the imagery of his sermons 
described in the last chapter. His addresses on these 
occasions were invariably short, and not unfrequently 
contained an innocent and witty philippic against those 
long harangues by which the patience of hearers is so 
often exhausted. He used to tell the following droll 
story of what he said on one occasion. " His Royal 

Highness the Duke of was in the chair, and 

kindly desired me to sit next him. A man absolutely 
had the bad taste to spin out his dull tiresome orator^/ 
for more than an hour. Some of the people, tired to 
death, as well they might, went away. His Royal 
Highness whispered to me — * Really, Mr. Hill, I do not 
think I can sit to hear such another speech as this ; 
I wish you would give one of your good-natured hints 
about it.' It was my turn next ; so I said, *May it 
please your Royal Highness, ladies, and gentlemen, 
I am not going to make either a long or a moving 
speech. The first is a rudeness ; and the second is not 
required to-day, after the very moving one you have 



214 



Long speeches. 



just heard — so moving, that several of the company 
have been moved by it out of the room — nay, I even 
fear, such another would so move his Royal High- 
ness himself, that he would be unable to continue 
in the chair; and would, to the great regret of the 
meeting, be obliged to move off.' This tickled his 
Royal Highness and the assembly, and we had no more 
long speeches that day." 

As he grew older, Mr. Hill's impatience of the 
length, at which some people venture to speak, did not 
at all diminish. The following reply to an invitation 
to preside at a meeting of the Tract Society, will 
shew his feeling on this subject ; and if it operates as 
a hint to such as are more lengthy than luminous, 
on similar occasions, many a chairman, and many a 
hearer, will have reason to be glad that it was pre- 
served to be inserted here. 

MY DEAR FRIEND, Wotton, Sept. 20, 1826. 

An old man, in the 83rd year of his age, 
ought to be a little provident of his remaining strength. 
You will say, no bodily strength can be needed, to sit 
quietly in a chair at a public meeting. True, but no 
small degree of mental patience is needed, while the 
poor chairman must sit it out for three hours at the 
least, to hear many a tiresome long speech (if they 
are not all of the same sort) without any remedy or 
redress, upon the high fidgets, above half the time 
gaping and watching the clock. In most of these 
public meetings I have been tired down before they 
have been half over, and have been obliged to sheer off 
with the remains of my patience, and leave the finish- 
ing to others, while nothing but a short speech might 
have been expected from me. 



Long speeches. 



215 



In the way in which too many of these sort of 
meetings are now conducted, I have my fears, that 
many a good cause is injured by the means adopted for 
their support. Though some may be gratified by what 
may be said to the point, yet O the dulness, the circum- 
locutiousness, the conceit, the tautology, &c. &c. of 
others. In short, few know how to be pithy, short, 
and sweet, and as I find it very difficult to be pithy 
and sweet, my refuge at all times is to be short. Pity 
therefore a poor old man, and let him not be sentenced 
to suffer such a sort of pillory punishment, and try if 
you cannot persuade some other good tempered sinner 
to suffer in his stead. 

Yours very sincerely and affectionately, 

Mr. Jones, ROWLAND HlLL- 

Religious Tract Society^ 

Paternoster Row, London. 



Mr. Hill's antipathy to long speeches was not stronger 
than his disgust at the unmeaning flourishes, which 
are too often introduced into sermons, to catch the 
vulgar ear, rather than to touch the sinner's heart. 
His remarks on this failing, though in an eccentric 
style, are well worthy of notice. " Fine affected 
flourishes," he says in a letter to a friend, " and 
unmeaning rant, are poor substitutes for plain, simple, 
unaffected gospel truths : yet such sort of preaching 
will have its admirers ; and it is surprising what 
strange stuff of different sorts will make up a popular 
preacher, insomuch that being registered in that num- 
ber, should rather fill us with shame than with pride." 
Speaking of the spurious popularity of one individual, 
and of the crowds who were attracted by his declama- 
tory and florid style, he observed — "they are quite 
tired of being hammered with the same threadbare old 



216 



Poptilarity . 



truths. They are for the man who can carry them 
away, upon the wings of his amazing oratory, up into 
the third heavens among the angels and archangels, 
and turn them into spiritual star-gazers at a single 
flight. They cannot bear any longer to be kept creep- 
ing on their knees, as poor sinners at the foot of the 
cross, while they have nothing to do but to catch hold 
of the tail of this wonderful fine spiritual kite, and fly 
away with him wherever he may choose to carry 
them." When once asked his opinion of the excite- 
ment produced by a well known preacher, he said, 
" this cannot last ; he is like a sky-rocket that goes off 
blazing into the air ; but the dry stick soon falls to the 
ground, and is forgotten." 

Probably one great cause of the usefulness of Mr. 
Rowland HilFs own preaching was his utter forgetful- 
ness of self, when engaged in delivering his message to 
sinners. The beautiful illustrations he employed were 
simply intended to elucidate his meaning, and not to 
exhibit the j)ower of his imagination. He considered 
all unprofitable pomp and vainglorious flashes of oratory 
in preaching as happily compared by King James to 
the red and blue flowers in the corn-fields, which at 
once dazzle the eye, injure the growing crop, and prove 
the barrenness of the soil. His warnings came from a 
heart awed with the terrors of the Lord ; his descrip- 
tions of religious experience were faithful delineations 
of the workings of his own mind ; and his invitations 
to Christ were poured forth with all the tenderness of 
one who really yearned over souls. He expressed the 
desires, feelings, and recollections of the instant, so 
that even immediate!}^ after preaching, he did not 
remember what he had said ; and often has he declared, 
that he never reached the foot of the pulpit stairs, 



Interesting 71 of ice. 



217 



without the impression that he had not discharged his 
office as he ought. Hence, scarcely a Sunday passed 
without some notice of his success. One little slip of 
paper placed in his hands in the pulpit, is a very strik- 
ing instance of deep conviction in an individual who 
afterwards had much joy and peace in believing. It 
was written in a beautiful hand, and worded thus : — 
" Will God indeed hear prayer for a hardened and 
impenitent sinner, who would mourn over his vileness, 
but cannot; who longs to approach his mercy-seat, 
and to draw near to the table of the Lord, but dares 
not ; whose soul is darkness, and his heart cold within 
him! Oh ! that Jesus would shine into his soul, and 
chase away the clouds of sin that involve it, that he 
may no longer go sighing all the day long, as they 
that have no hope, and no consolation. 

The person who thus depicted the first workings of 
religion in his soul, was publicly invited to a private 
interview with the faithful minister he had so touch- 
ingly addressed. After a long delay, he came trembling 
to confer with his beloved pastor, who had the satis- 
faction of seeing him, at last, in the full enjoyment of 
that perfect love which casteth out fear. 

The interest v/iih which Mr. Rov/land Hill watched 
the closing scenes of his converts, walking as it were 
by their side to the very gates of death, and consider- 
ing the end of each of them as a memento of his own, 
is worthy the imitation of every minister. His calm- 
ness in the chamber of the dying, the tenderness with 
which he held forth the love of Jesus, as the only 
refuge of the expiring believer, and his composed and 
solemn commendation of the soul to God, were won- 



218 



Visits to the sick. Hymn. 



derfuUy contrasted with his agitation, when he left the 
bedside of one he loved, but whom he was soon to lose. 
The emotions he had suppressed, often vented them- 
selves on these occasions in tears, but oftener in a 
violent sickness, which would have alarmed a stranger, 
and was most distressing to his friends. Nor did his 
anxiety for his dying hearers end with the ebullition 
of his sorrow; he thought of them often^ and some- 
times composed hymns, which he sent them. 

The depth of Mr. Hill's piety was never more per- 
ceptible than in his hymns. The one entitled " a 
Prayer for the Promised Rest," he considered as the 
best he ever wrote: it has been repeated with a holy 
joy, by many of his flock in the approach of death. 

A PRAYER FOR THE PROMISED REST. 

Dear Friend of friendless sinners, hear. 
And magnify thy grace divine, 
Pardon a worm that would draw near. 
That would his heart to thee resign : 
A worm, by self and sin opprest, 
That pants to reach thy promised rest. 

With holy fean and reverend love, 
I long to lie beneath thy throne;, 
I long in thee to live and move, 
And charge myself on thee alone. 
Teach me to lean upon thy breast, 
To find in thee, the promised rest. 

Thou sayst thou wilt thy servants keep 
In perfect peace, whose minds shall be 
Like new born babes, or helpless sheep, 
Completely stay'd, dear Lord, on thee : 
How calm their state, how truly blest. 
Who trust on thee, the promised rest. 

Take me, my Saviour, as thine own^ 
And vindicate my righteous cause ; 
Be thou my portion, Lord, alone, 
And bend me to obey thy laws : 
In thy dear arms of love caress'd. 
Give me to find thy promised rest. 



Village Dialogues, 



219 



Bid the tempestuous rage of sin, 
With all its wrathful fury, die; 
Let the Redeemer dwell within. 
And turn my sorrows into joy: 
O may my heart, by thee possess'd, 
Know thee to be my promised rest. 

It is time, however, that we pass on from these 
digressions to a more regular narration of events. 

About the year 1800, Mr. Rowland Hill conceived 
the idea of composing his Village Dialogues, the cha- 
racter of which is too well known to need description 
in these pages. " Why, sir," it was remarked to him, 
" your dialogues make us laugh and cry in the same 
breath!" "To be sure," said he, "that is just what 
I did when I wrote them." " But, sir, you are 
scarcely justified, are you, in the satirical attack you 
have made upon the church?" " What! Attack upon 
the church! I meant no such thing — why, how un- 
reasonable it is to say so — look you, the hero of my 
piece is a clergyman of the most truly evangelical 
character." 

The preface to the dialogues informs us, that the 
author's chief adviser, during the progress of the work, 
was the excellent Mr. Ambrose Serle, whose able and 
pious letters on the subject will be read with great 
interest by those acquainted with the Village Dialogues. 
The first is as follows : — 

REV. AND DEAR SIR, James Street, 26th May, 1801. 

You must have thought me extremely rude, 
by my long omission to acknowledge the receipt of 
your friendly letter; but the fact is, I have been 
absent from town on public business, for these last five 
weeks, two days excepted, and therefore could not 
avoid the delay. 



220 



Letter of Mr. Ambrose Serle. 



The little tracts on which you condescend to ask my 
opinion, though your own knowledge and experience 
must have rendered you a far more competent judge 
than I am, do certainly contain many great, solid, and 
fundamental truths, which no man can dispute without 
bringing into doubt the reality of his own faith and 
hope as a Christian; and I conceive it to be my duty 
earnestly to pray, that the widest dissemination of 
those evangelical principles, consonant as they are to 
the articles and homilies of the established church, 
may take place throughout the world. But I conclude 
that not the principles themselves, but the manner in 
which they are offered, have raised a difficulty among 
your friends. I own, with respect to myself (though 
1 have formerly been a defaulter), that the grave and 
the solemn subjects of death, and hell, and a judgment 
to come, with all that relates to God and the salvation 
of man, seem to require a weighty seriousness of 
spirit, thoroughly impressed with a humble, awful 
sense of matters most indisputably momentous and 
sublime; but I cannot dare absolutely to condemn a 
more lively frame of mind in others than I can choose 
to allow in myself, because I have seen the blessing of 
God co-operating with writing and discourses, abound- 
ing with sallies of high vivacity and genius, which 
perhaps persons of a reserved or melancholy temper, 
not warranted, however, by religion, which is joy and 
peace in itself, might be inclined to dislike or refuse. 
Spiritual hilarity, too, may have its exorbitances as 
well as the natural ; and this ease of heart often ex- 
poses men, otherwise humble and serious, to cheerful 
sensations, by no means accommodated to people under 
trials, anxieties, or temptations. The case, therefore, 
must be left to God, with due allowance for the 



Letter of Mr. Ambrose Serle. 221 

peculiar turns of the human mind, which grace 
does not alter, but improve, and which vary in 
almost every person we meet with ; and these, when 
the great points are correct, become a proper sub- 
ject for mutual charity and forbearance among Chris- 
tians. 

Possibly, some of your friends may be offended, at 
what they suppose an implied censure upon the great 
body of the ministers of the established church. I 
bewail the melancholy fact, however, that too many 
such ministers as Mr. Dolittle are in the establishment, 
who act and speak more as men of the world, than a 
Heathen can allow to be consistent with the Christian 
profession. I lament, too, that such unfit and unwor- 
thy men are not, or cannot, be turned out of it. But 
I rejoice, at the sam.e time, that there is in our day " a 
great company of the priests" who have truly believed, 
who are sedulous in their respective stations, who are 
highly instrumental in turning many from darkness to 
light, and whose lives and conversations are an orna- 
ment to their profession, and examples to their flocks. 
Between these two very different sorts of people, I am 
sure you will think with me, that a strong and broad 
line of distinction should, in every discussion relative to 
the duty of the function, be constantly and eminently 
drawn. Justice and truth, as well as the edification of 
souls, do forcibly require it. 

The bottom of the page reminds me, that I am 
trespassing upon the indulgence you have allowed ; 
and therefore I will only add my hearty prayers 
that the Lord of life and glory, in whose name 
you stand among the children of men, may direct 
and bless all your labours to the end for which you 
stand up at all ■ — the salvation of souls by Jesus 



222 



Letter of Mr. Ambrose Sevle. 



Christ. I beg to be remembered in the same by you, 
and remain, 

Rev. and dear sir, your friend 

and servant in one common Lord, 

Rev. Rowland Hill. AMBROSE SeRLE. 

In August, 1801, Mr. Ambrose Serle again wrote 
to him on the style of his Village Dialogues, and the 
vein of humour which runs through them. 

MY DEAR SIR, James Street, Uth August, 1801. 

Your last favour came to my hands in the 
north, as I was travelling on public business. 

Though I have not had the pleasure of seeing the 
last dialogues you mention, I am persuaded that you 
have no object in their publication but spiritual 
edification ; and whether this object can be attained 
by lively sallies or graver attempts, is a matter which, 
I own, depends so much upon the blessing of God, that 
I feel it to be a kind of hazard in me to say any thing 
positively upon it. There appears, however, a real 
distinction between pleasantry and levity, though this 
distinction, considering the different humours, and, con- 
sequently, the different opinions of men, cannot easily 
be so marked, as to define always where one ends and 
the other begins. Gloomy tempers are prone to 
censure (and especially upon subjects of a serious and 
solemn nature) the least departure from that which 
particularly suits them. People of more cheerful dis- 
positions can be pleased ; nay, I believe, can be ad- 
vantaged, by lively expressions and representations of 
the most sacred and important truths. I remember to 
have heard, that once, in a large company assembled 
on some particular occasion, two ministers, strangers 
to each other, were invited to meet ; the one, a man of 



Letter of Mr, Ambrose Serle. 223 



great wit and vivacity like yourself ; and the other, 
of a melancholic turn, rendered, perhaps, still more 
melancholic by repeated trials and sufferings. The 
pleasant man indulged his vein, and frequently excited 
a degree of mirth in the circle about him : the other, 
surprised at what appeared to him a conduct quite out 
of order, sat in silence, wrapt up in reserve. Towards 
the breaking up of the company, the cheerful minister 
was called upon to be the voice of the rest in prayer to 
God, in which exercise his soul was so carried out in 
sublime communion, and the most ardent excitations 
of spiritual life and love, that it seemed a flame from 
Heaven, diffused and enkindled in the hearts of all 
about him. When they arose, the dear melancholic 
man went up to him, with tears streaming from his 
eyes, and addressed him to the following purpose : — 
" My dear brother, forgive me, I beseech you. Here 
have I been for this whole afternoon, condemning you 
as a person of a light and frothy mind, talking utterly 
unworthy, not only of a Christian minister, but of a 
Christian man ; but I see, and confess, from what God 
has done in jow, and enabled you to utter in prayer 
before him, and in the presence of this company, that 
the fault is all my own, and that gloominess of mind is 
no necessary part of true religion, nor cheerfulness of 
mind an enemy to it." Having said this, he cordially 
embraced his no less affectionate brother with mutual 
tears of joy. Excuse this story. 

With my hearty prayers, that the Lord may bless 
all your labours for the edification of souls, and for his 
own glory by Christ Jesus, 
I remain, dear sir. 

Your friend and obedient servant, 
Ambiiose Serle. 



22 i Village Dialogues. 

The Village Dialogues have passed through thirty 
editions, and have been translated into some of the 
languages of the continent. The rural dialects which 
abound in them are those of the West of England, 
with which their author was most familiar ; and in the 
midst of matter of almost every kind, they certainly 
contain many beautiful descriptions of the effects of 
real piety, on persons of every class, as well as scenes 
of the most affecting pathos. Mr. Hill utterly, denied, 
that " when a bad minister or character had been held 
forth as a proper example for reproof," it was intended 
by him for a '^sweeping charge," without any dis- 
crimination, and frequently asserted, that he had no 
intention of attacking the church by any such descrip- 
tions: on the contrary, his declared purpose was to 
show, in some of his characters, the value and great 
usefulness of its devoted and laborious clergy. How 
far he took the steps most likely to effect such an 
object, must be left to the various opinions of the 
readers of the work ; and it is fairly questionable, 
whether some of the incidents described in it may not 
have a tendency to produce an impression on the mind 
very opposite to his real design. Still there is every 
reason to believe, that they have been instrumental in 
awakening numbers of careless and irreligious people, 
and frequent instances have occurred of persons dating 
their conversion from the perusal of this book. Thus 
the undoubted purity of his object has been owned of 
God. 

It would not be right, in a life of Mr. Rowland Hill, 
to leave unnoticed some dialogues of a very different 
description from those to which reference has been just 
made. Contrary to the advice of his sincerest friends, 
as well as the urgent entreaties even of many dis- 



Sale of Curates. 



225 



senters, he persisted in publishing his " Sale of Curates." 
The consequence was that anticipated by almost every 
person of discretion — his exclusion from the numerous 
pulpits of the establishment into which he had been 
previously admitted. His popularity, and the well 
known excellence of all his purposes, made him the 
welcome assistant of a great number of clergy, when- 
ever he found it convenient and agreeable ; but after 
this book was circulated, they considered it impossible 
any more to invite his services ; the more especially, as 
in many instances it would have been in opposition to 
the will of their ecclesiastical superiors. He certainly 
regretted at last, that it was ever printed, and said, 
" I wish I could buy it up." It was one of the mistakes 
of a long and laborious life, in which there was so 
much to illumine the page of his history, that after 
these remarks, which fidelity requires, we may pass on 
to contemplate his happier and wiser efforts, for the 
spread of divine truth. The current of his ardent and 
inventive mind sometimes overflowed the limits which 
reason and religion prescribed for its course, diffusing 
itself in shallows, and injuring the very soil he had 
most assiduously cultivated ; but it oftener ran within 
its proper bounds, conveying freshness and fertility to 
every scene through which it passed. 

At the commencement of the present century, there 
was scarcely an event of religious interest with which 
Mr. Hill was not in some degree connected. Men 
employed in disseminating the truth over the continent 
of Europe, and missionaries in various parts of the 
world, seemed to delight in reporting to him the 
tidings of their success, or in opening to his sympa- 
thising breast all their cares, dangers, and sufferings. 
He justly deemed consistency at home the great secret 

Q 



226 



Way7iwg to Professors. 



of usefulness abroad ; and with a view to the correction 
of worldly conformity, in many who professed the 
name of Christ in our own land, he published his 
Warning to Professors." Allusion to it has been 
made before in these pages, but it is now mentioned to 
introduce some admirable remarks of Mr. Serle, who 
says, in a letter to its author, " I have read over the 
' Warning' with much delight. It is a publication that 
has long been wanted among us ; and there is a life, 
and spirit, as well as a seriousness, in the composition, 
which, in the Lord's hand, cannot fail, I think, of 
making deep impression. I have been praying over 
it, that the Divine Spirit may accompany this most 
necessary tract with his efficacious blessing, and that 
thousands now living, and tens of thousands yet 
unborn, may receive counsel, edification, and jfull 
correction respecting those worldly conformities, and 
carnal (I might say devilish) snares, which in all ages 
are, and have been, laid for the entanglement of 
professors. Every true believer will rejoice in your 
work. The opinion of nominal Christians, however 
specious and sensible they may appear in eyes like 
their own, is not worth a moment's attention. The 
Lord make us good non-conformists to the world, and 
then the world may deride us as they please. A little 
of their slander and opposition will cause professors to 
mind, as well as to mend their ways ; for while the 
men of the earth are watching over their conduct, they 
will be more zealously induced to look up for wisdom 
and strength from above, that their feet may be kept 
from falling, and that they may glorify the Lord more 
and more in their lives and conversations. Once more 
accept my thanks for this most seasonable and power- 
ful publication." 



BiUe Suriefi/. 



Mr. Hill was very vigilant over the consistency of 
the members of his own chapel. " The city of London," 
he says, in " Warning," " may be compared to a 
great wilderness ; we seldom know how our next 
neighbour lives. I have, therefore, found great utility 
in announcing, on three different occasions, before all 
the communicants, the names and the abodes of those 
who wish more statedly to join the communion. They 
are next regularly registered, that we may call for 
them whenever necessity requires : after this they 
receive such frequent charges, as that they know all 
conformity to the world is totally proliihited among us. 
By this plan, considering the very imperfect state of 
things, though we do not suppose that all is gold that 
glitters, yet, comparatively speaking, the disgraceful 
characters have been but few. Thus things have, with 
a little attention, been most comfortably managed, 
while the most pleasant peace and harmony universally 
prevails." Indeed, the communicants at Surry Chapel, 
thus carefully watched over, have ever been remarkable 
for a conduct of admirable purity, happily untainted by 
the ascetic or morose. 

This era of Mr. Rowland Hill's life was marked by 
the ever memorable event of the formation of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society, an institution 
which he cherished in its rise, and whose principles he 
defended in all the trying scenes through which it 
has passed. The first members of it were amongst 
his most esteemed friends, and its president. Lord 
Teignmouth, was connected by marriage with the Hill 
family. It was at the suggestion of the Bishop of 
London that Lord Teignmouth was proposed in the 
committee, by Mr. Owen, as president of the Bible 
Society, and the proposition was instantly seconded by 

Q 2 



228 



Vaccination. 



Mr. Rowland Hill, who had the happiness of being 
thus instrumental in placing, at the head of that truly 
admirable body, one of the most judicious and excellent 
noblemen that could have been selected for such an 
important office. Never was any man more entirely 
given up to the cause of truth than Mr. Hill, and all 
the energies of his mind and the powers of his body 
were voluntarily offered to the Lord as his reasonable 
and willing service. As each successive formation of 
auxiliary associations gave additional strength to the 
Bible Society, he seemed filled with a glow of interest 
and delight. When the news first arrived of the 
meeting at Cambridge, he was just about to sit down 
to dinner, which he finished with the utmost haste, 
and would scarcely wait the removal of the cloth 
before he said to the author of these memoirs, then a 
boy spending the holidays at his house, " now read me 
every word of these speeches." His ecstasy was so 
great, that expressions of the most pure delight burst 
every moment from his lips. " O what a change since 
I was at the University — the Lord be praised, the 
Lord be praised." To the immortal honour of Trinity 
College, the master and seniors of that learned body 
presented a donation of fifty guineas to the Bible 
Society, on the day of the Nation's Jubilee, a proper 
homage to that blessed book which must be our ladder 
to true learning, even unto gray hairs, and the mystery 
of whose truths, both the literate and illiterate can only 
know by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. 

On the discovery of vaccination by Dr. Jenner, 
Mr. Rowland Hill eagerly embraced this new means of 
conferring a benefit on his fellow creatures, and ably 
defended it against its opponents. " This," he said, 
is the very thing for me ;" and wherever he went to 



Vaccination. 



229 



preach, he announced after his sermon, " I am ready to 
vaccinate to-morrow morning as many children as you 
choose, and if you wish them to escape that horrid 
disease, the small-pox, you will bring them." Once a 
week he inoculated the children who were brought to 
him from Wotton and the neighbourhood ; and it is 
well known that one of the most effective vaccine 
boards in London was established, and still continues 
in operation, at Surry Chapel. 

When vaccinating children, he seemed quite in his 
element, talking kindly to the parents, and coaxing the 
little frightened creatures in the most good-natured 
manner. In a few years, the numbers inoculated by 
him amounted to more than ten thousand, and in most 
of the cases he was particularly successful. Dr. Jenner 
was of a very lively turn of mind,'^ and animated 
conversation, with a remarkably kind disposition; and 
although he did not fully participate in his venerable 
friend's religious views and feelings, he had the 
highest reverence for his character, and was a frequent 
attendant on his ministry at Cheltenham. He seemed 
at times forcibly struck with the deep tone of the 
zealous preacher's piety and glowing anticipations of 
happiness, in a spiritual state of being. Mr. Hill once 
introduced him to a nobleman in these terms : " Allow 
me to present to your lordship my friend Dr. Jenner, 
who has been the means of saving more lives than any 
other man." Dr. Jenner bowed, and said, with great 
earnestness, " Ah ! would I, like you, could say souls" 

The ministry of Mr. Rowland Hill, in middle age, 
was made very useful to some of the Gloucestershire 



4 I remember seeing these two remarkable men amusing themselves in playing 
with an old eagle in Dr. Jenner's garden, at Berkley, with all the sportive interest 
of boys. 



230 



Converted farmen 



farmers, amongst whom pleasing instances of conver- 
sion, and a total change of habits and manners, took 
place. These persons were shining examples of the 
power of religion on previously ill-cultivated minds. 
The frost of selfishness, by which all the softer 
faculties of their souls had formerly been congealed, 
dissolved under the melting influences of the love of 
God, and the simple graces of true piety flowed forth 
in streams of active benevolence. Such is the character 
of Farmer Little worth in the Village Dialogues, which 
was drawn from what the author himself had witnessed 
in his own flock. One individual, in particular, pre- 
sented as striking an instance of the efficacy of religion 
as can be conceived. He was, in his youth, an 
attendant upon every scene of rural dissipation within 
his reach ; a fighter, a horse racer, a midnight rioter 
in fairs and revels. Grace changed his heart and his 
life, so that he became a true and zealous servant of 
the Lord Jesus Christ; peaceful, diligent, industrious, 
generous. He frequently described the happiness he 
enjoyed in the service of God, contrasting it with his 
stings of conscience when he lived in sin. " When I 
used to go," he said, " to all kinds of fairs, and revels, 
and horse races, I was never happy. As I was coming 
home through the woods at night, the rustling of a leaf 
would frighten me ; terrified by I know not what, 
fleeing when no man pursued, I galloped home as fast 
as my horse could carry me. Now, if I go to visit a 
poor dying man, or if I have been enjoying the word 
of life, I come home in a calm and peaceful frame of 
mind. I find that the Lord is present with me; and 
as / walk my horse gently along, I look up and see 
the bright stars above my head, and am happy in the 
assurance that the God who made them all is mine in 



Death of Sir Richard Hill. 



231 



Christ. O what a mercy ! — the loneliness of the wood, 
the rustling of the leaves, the stillness of night, no 
longer alarm me — I am, I trust, reconciled to my 
God, and at peace with him and my own conscience, 
through the death of his Son. He that fills the 
heavens with his glory, and the earth with his mercies, 
condescends to dwell in, and to comfort, my poor sinful 
heart." Mr. Hill had a great regard for this excellent 
man. He had naturally a fervent spirit ; and some- 
times as he looked at his aged minister a tear stole 
down his cheek, when he remembered that he was the 
first messenger of comfort to his soul. This pious 
farmer knew the state of mxind, and inquired into the 
temporal wants, of every poor man in his employ; and 
it may be truly said, the Lord was with him in his 
business, for it always seemed to prosper. 

On November 28th, 1808, Mr. Rowland Hill lost his 
affectionate brother Sir Kichard Hill, who was suc- 
ceeded in his title and estates by his brother Mr. John 
Hill, the father of Lord Hill and the other brave 
soldiers before- mentioned. A handsome addition to 
the income of Mr. Rowland Hill was left him by his 
deceased brother, and he immediately increased his 
charities in proportion to his augmented means. He 
was perpetually endeavouring to extend the limits of 
his usefulness, and began to turn his thoughts towards 
the introduction of the gospel into Cheltenham, then 
rapidly rising to its present high estimation, as a place 
of fashionable resort. Cheltenham was some years 
ago little more than a village, till the discovery of its 
mineral waters attracted many persons from a distance. 
The parish church being totally unequal to their accom- 
modation, Mr. Hill, in conjunction with some good 
men in the neighbourhood, conceived the plan of erect- 



232 



Cheltenham. 



ing a chapel there, to which it was hoped the visitors 
would be attracted. Had there then existed the pre- 
sent ample and excellent provision for the spiritual 
wants of its inhabitants and others, he would not have 
interfered ; and no person rejoiced more sincerely than 
he did, in his old age, at the zeal of the clergy who 
presided over the large congregations in that place. By 
his influence, subscriptions were soon raised to erect a 
handsome and commodious place of worship, in which 
he was zealously assisted by a gentleman residing in 
the town. Another of his coadjutors in this work was 
his friend O. P. Wathen, Esq. of Woodchester, near 
Stroud, to whom he thus mentioned his intention. 
" I suppose you have heard of our design to build a 
large chapel at Cheltenham, upon the plan of ours at 
Surry Chapel ; the church service to be adopted, and 
the pulpit open to evangelical ministers of all denomi- 
nations. This event will probably call me more fre- 
quently to visit your part of the country." The first 
stone was laid in the year 1808, by Mr. Rowland Hill, 
who preached on the occasion to a large assembly, and 
in the autumn of 1809 it was completed, and opened 
for divine service. Whenever Mr. Hill visited Chel- 
tenham, the building was crowded to excess, and he 
continued to preach in it occasionally, to vast congre- 
gations, and with great popularity, till within a year 
of his death. From this pulpit he delivered some of 
his finest sermons ; and his dignified appearance, energy 
of manner, and widely extended fame, attracted persons 
of every rank, not a few of whom greatly profited by 
the truths they heard. 

In the midst of all the numerous engagements of 
this indefatigable minister, it was delightful to watch 
his innocent relaxations. His garden was to him a 



Mr. Rowland HilVs amusements. 



233 



source of perpetual enjoyment, and he prided himself 
on his successful cultivation of flowers. On arriving 
from a long and fatiguing journey, he seldom went 
into the house till the borders were examined, and 
notice taken of the progress of the plants in his ab- 
sence. The strawberries, melons, and fruit trees, were 
brought to great perfection under his own special 
superintendance. Three or four times, in a warm 
summer's morning, he would quit his study to gather 
rose leaves for a pot-pourri, a supply of which, pre- 
pared by his own hands, he was very proud of offering 
to his visitors. After dinner, while some person read 
aloud, he was busily occupied in making nets for his 
fruit trees or fish ponds ; and if he took a walk in the 
evening, it must be with an odometer to measure the 
distance from the house at Wotton, to some place in 
the vicinity. He also had his pets of the animal crea- 
tion, and often exhibited the tricks which he had 
taught them, with a humour belonging to himself 
alone. Still, in the midst of all his amusements, 
religion appeared admirably predominant, visibly qua- 
lifying his every pursuit, and gently restraining the 
redundances of one of the most active and original dis- 
positions ever implanted in man. 



234 



CHAPTER X. 

My own recollections of Mr. Rowland Hilt. 

I HAVE hitherto given such a history of the life of 
Mr. Rowland Hill, as I could collect from my remem- 
brance of what he has told me himself of his extra- 
ordinary career, and from the interesting documents 
which he bequeathed to me. As I have never passed 
a year without spending some portion of it with him, 
I think I shall be enabled to convey to those interested 
in his memoirs a more complete view of his unique 
character, by bringing before them in the first person, 
my recollections of his public engagements, and the 
pleasing developement of his amiable and cheerful qua- 
lities in the retirement of his own family. Surrounded 
as he was by persons of every description, it was ne- 
cessary that he should be somewhat reserved, except to 
a few individuals who possessed his confidence. A^um- 
bers fancied they knew him well, because he was 
courteous, polite, and cheerful, in the presence of every 
person of whom he entertained a good opinion; but 
though the readiness of his wit and humour caused 
him to converse in an apparently unrestrained manner 
with many, very few were acquainted with the move- 
ments of his mind, or the events of his early days. 
Some presumed upon his kindness ; but he bore their 
forwardness with patience, for the sake of doing good, 
and because he believed it arose from ignorance. If 
once his suspicions were awakened and confirmed, 
those he had detected in doing wrong seldom sought a 
second interview with him. Many years ago, an indi- 



Anecdote. 



235 



vidiial, who had done great discredit to a profession of 
religion, was standing at his door, just as he was going- 
out, and hypocritically greeted him with " How do 
you do, Mr. Hill ; I am delighted to see you once 
more." He made no answer ; but with an air of per- 
fect amazement, exclaimed, "What! ar'n't you hanged 
yet?" and returned to the house till the astonished 
visitor departed. He was so well known by name to 
every description of person, that applications of all 
kinds were made to him ; and I have witnessed some 
such scenes at Surry Chapel House, as I think were 
never to be met with in any other place. I well re- 
member one morning the footman ushered in a most 
romantic looking lady. She advanced with measured 
steps, and with an air that caused Mr. Hill to retreat 
towards the fire-place. She began, 

** Divine shepherd" — 

" 'Pon my word, ma'am ! " 
I hear you have great influence with the royal 
family." 

" Well, ma'am, and did you hear any thing else ? " 

" Now seriously, sir — my son has the most wonder- 
ful poetic powers. Sir, his poetry is of a sublime 
order — noble, original, fine " — 

"Well, I wonder what will come next," muttered 
Mr. Hill, in a low tone, 

" Yes, sir, pardon the liberty, and therefore I called 
to ask you to get him made Poet Laureate.'' 

"' Ma'am, you might as well ask me to get him 
made Archbishop of Canterbury ! " 

The mother of the poetic genius withdrew, looking 
highly indignant at the fit of laughter it was impossible 
to suppress. 

At times the knocker of Mr. Rowland Hill's door 



236 



Anecdote. 



had literally no rest from morning till night ; and 
nothing could exceed the good humour with which he 
submitted to every species of interruption. Foreigners, 
all sorts of mendicants, candidates for the ministry — 
in short, almost every person who called found him 
ready to listen to their cases. These were sometimes, 
like that which has been just described, not a little 
singular. One evening after dinner, his servant said, 
" Sir, a foreign gentleman wishes to speak to you." 
" Well, show him in," said Mr. Hill, and there entered 
a tall mustachoed man, who addressed him with, 

" Meester Hill, I have heard you are a wonderful 
great, goot man — can do any ting." 

" Mercy on us ! then I must be a wonderful man 
indeed." 

" Yes, sare, so you are a very wonderful man ; so 
I call to ask you to make my ambassador do his duty 
by meT 

" Sir, I can assure you I have not the honour of 
knowing him." 

" Oh, sare, but he regard a letter from you." 

" Sir, I can have no possible influence with him, and 
cannot take the liberty of writing to him on a subject 
about which I know nothing." 

" But, sare, I will tell you" — 

Finding his applicant inclined to be pertinacious, he 
concluded the business by saying — 

" Well, sir, you may give my compliments to the 
ambassador, and say, that / advise him to do his duty : 
and that will do as well as writing." 

" Very goot, sare — goot day." 

The unreasonable requests to which my excellent 
relative was continually subject are almost incredible ; 
and the patience with which he bore them all was 



Ail election. 



237 



truly surprising. Numerous stories of his sayings on 
such occasions have been widely circulated, many of 
which originated in the imaginations of the inventors. 
I do not recollect a single instance of his losing his 
temper when annoyed in this manner ; nor do I ever 
remember him to have given way to uncontrolled irri- 
tability, under the most trying excitement. In this 
respect he was, in the retirement of his family, a 
happy illustration of the precepts he so forcibly incul- 
cated in his public ministrations, which he did not 
convert merely into ostentations of his eloquence, but 
made them the law of his own exemplary life. 

In the winter of 1810-11 Mr. Rowland Hill took a 
very active part in a contested election, and engaged in 
the canvass with all the energy of his persevering cha- 
racter. He never more fully experienced the effects 
of his unbounded popularity than on this occasion. 
Wherever he appeared he was greeted with enthu- 
siasm, and had the greatest difficulty in preventing the 
populace from taken the horses out of his carriage, 
and drawing him themselves. This was the only time 
in my remembrance that he was occupied in an active 
political canvass, for which he considered there were 
good reasons : he ever afterwards declined to inter- 
fere. As was to be expected, this deviation from his 
usual course was the cause of many remarks, which he 
generally suffered to pass unnoticed ; but on one of the 
days of the poll he happened to be seated at table with 
a young man of high connexions, who observed, in 
rather a sarcastic tone, " really the Methodists make 
excellent canvassers." 

Mr. Hill, roused in an instant, said, " I consider 
myself singularly fortunate in having met you to-day, 
as I shall now obtain a correct definition of a term I 



238 



Aiiecdote. 



never knew the real meaning of. Pray allow me to 
ask you to tell me what a Methodist is." 

"Indeed, Mr. Hill, I beg your pardon, I did not 
remember you were present, when I made use of the 
word." 

" I cannot say that your apology at all lessens my 
right to ask the question, as you have now made the 
expression personal to myself." 

" O no, no, no, indeed," 

" Well, but as I presume a person of your education 
and ability is not accustomed to use language you do 
not know the meaning of, I still for the sake of in- 
formation beg leave to press my question." 

" Why in truth, I — I — I — cannot exactly say." 

^*Then allow me, as an old man, to give a little 
wholesome advice to you, as a young one — never again, 
particularly in a large company, make use of words 
the signification of which you do not understand, and 
cannot explain," 

I heard Mr. Hill give an account of this conversa- 
tion, when he added — " We met the next day for all 
this, and were as good friends as ever: I only gave 
him a little proper counsel." He certainly felt the 
young man's observation very acutely, and his resolu- 
tion never to come forward again in a similar way, is 
a proof that he thought it unadvisable for a minister 
to be carried out of the path of higher and spiritual 
pursuits by the force of any temporal excitement. The 
messenger of the gospel becomes the truest patriot 
when he is most diligently employed in winning his 
fellow countrymen to the religion of Christ Jesus, 
whose precepts, obeyed from the heart, are the firmest 
pillars of the social system, and the surest antidote to 
anarchy or misrule. 



CJieJfenham, Severe accidetit 



239 



In the summer and autumn of 1811 Mr. HilFs 
thoughts were much occupied by an attempt to rate 
his chapel in Blackfriars' road, which I shall notice 
hereafter, and by the affairs of his cause at Chelten- 
ham. In a letter to the Rev. G. Clayton, he speaks 
thus of the work that was going on in the latter place. 
" You will be happy to hear that the cause at Chel- 
tenham continues to prosper exceedingly. In the 
morning we are completely filled without a crowd : in 
the evening, in general, we nearly overflow, while some 
are kept away through the excessive heat of the place. 
God's word shall not return to him void, and I am 
persuaded much good is to be done, where prejudice is 
removed, and a serious attention is given to the word 
of life." With regard to his mode of managing the 
services, he remarks in the same letter, — " the eco- 
nomy of the chapel I trust also is well contrived to 
increase unity and peace throughout the Christian 
church at large. While the public are accommodated 
with that mode of worship which is most congenial 
with their educational prejudices, they will have an 
opportunity of finding that Christian ministers of 
various denominations are all so happily united in 
all the essential doctrines of the gospel as gives the 
happiest evidences of the unity of the Christian church, 
notwithstanding some little differences, scarcely worthy 
to be thought of among those that are really one in 
Christ." 

In the autumn of 1811 Mr. Hill met with a severe 
accident. He was riding his favourite cream-coloured 
horse " Bob" through a steep and rugged road, as 
the nearest way to a village in a neighbouring valley, 
where he was going to preach. The animal stumbled 
against one of the many large stones scattered over 



240 



Severe accident. 



the narrow way, and fell with his whole weight on his 
rider. Being of a most gentle and docile nature, he 
lay quiet till his master was extricated from his perilous 
situation, when the latter was found to be much 
bruised, and to have broken two of his ribs. He was 
confined for some weeks to his bed ; but his cheerful- 
ness never forsook him, though, before he arose, a 
severe inflammation settled in his right eye. Not 
being able to preach, Mr. Hill remained at Wotton till 
towards Christmas, when the state of his eye became 
so alarming that he went to London to consult the 
celebrated Mr. Ware. I travelled with him on that 
occasion. We were two days on the road ; he was 
mostly silent and dejected, complaining of great pain, 
till I remarked, " There is Eton, sir." He then seemed 
to forget his sufferings, and talked to me, in the kindest 
manner, of his religious feelings when a school boy, 
a€companied with beautiful remarks on the dedication 
of our youth to God, and the pleasures of the remem- 
brance of having spent it in his service. On arriving 
in London, before we went to Surry chapel, he drove 
to the house of Mr. Ware, and received all the kind- 
ness and attention for which that eminent oculist was 
so justly esteemed. When he reached his own resi- 
dence he rose into a frame of the most exalted piety, 
and walked up and down the room, breathing forth 
resignation to his chastening Father's will with all the 
fervour of a sanctified use of affliction. A minister 
present observed, " I never saw him in a more holy 
state of mind :" — in truth the Lord was with him in 
the furnace, so that the fire only destroyed the ties 
which had bound him too closely to earth, and to 
himself. " God," said he, " has laid me on one side, 
has incapacitated me for his work to humble me, to 



Cheltenham. 



'241 



make me feel that I am nothing in his cause, and that 
I may more justly value the privilege of labouring for 
his glory." The skill of Mr. Ware was at length made 
the means of restoring him to his beloved people. I 
shall never forget his first return to the pulpit on his 
recovery, nor the expression of happy welcome which 
beamed on the faces of a numerous and affectionate 
congregation. 

In the summer after his restoration to his minis- 
terial duties, I had the pleasure to accompany him and 
iMrs. Hill to Cheltenham. When there, he was fol- 
la#ed by visitors of every rank^ to whose accommo- 
dation in the chapel the most polite attention was paid 
by the trustees. He much enjoyed the morning walk 
at the Wells, and received great benefit from the 
waters ; but the pleasures of the place did not tempt 
him to relax in his usual routine of weekly village 
preaching. This will appear from a letter to his friend 
Mr. Wathen, announcing his intended plan. He says, 
"Mrs. Hill Ij^as 'promised to go with me to Chelten- 
ham, and w^ are to take young Sidney with us to shew 
him the pl^^^ In consequence of this, v/e shall travel 
all the w^yln our own carriage, and sffall hope to be 
with you at your dinner hour on Saturday, the 4th of 
July, which I suppose must not be late, as we shall 
afterwards have to go to Cheltenham in the evening. 
Though by this plan I shall not need the offer of your 
carriage, yet it need not prevent the kind design of 
your attending us to that place, f^should rather hope 
it would forward your intention, as we shall have a 
spare place in our carriage, that you may travel with 
us: Y ou know we are to return, if lives be spared, on 
the" Wednesday, that I'^'may preach at Rodborough, 
and Ebley, on the Thursday, and perhaps at Painswick 



242 Services of Sir Rowland Hill. 

on the Friday, and return to Cheltenham on the Satur- 
day." Though his weak eye suffered from the heat 
of the crowded chapels, he would preach ; no illness 
that did not actually confine him to the house, no re- 
monstrance could prevent it, and frequently, after sit- 
ting silent and rapt up in thought, he was heard to 
say indistinctly to himself, " O that I could do more for 
my God ! O that I could bring more souls to Christ ! 
Lord, help." Every walk in the grounds of his friends, 
every hill he climbed to enjoy some romantic view, 
every event seemed to furnish gleanings for his ser- 
mons. His mind turned all the incidents of life to 
the account of his work ; in which it was evident to 
those who were witnesses of his zeal, that no man 
ever engaged with more heartfelt earnestness to bring 
souls to a true concern for their eternal salvation. 
His playful, guileless mind ran innocently, and often 
sportively, on the surface of the earth ; but far more 
frequently did it soar on the wings of devotion, into 
regions above this world, expanding itself in the praise 
and service of the God of heaven. 

Towards the year 1813, the conspicuous part which 
his nephews took in the great and warlike deeds of the 
Peninsula, in addition to their vast importance, caused 
Mr. Rowland Hill to feel and to express no ordinary 
interest in the tidings of battles and victory that were 
perpetually reaching those who were at a distance 
from all the horrors and massacre of war. The ex- 
ploits and services of Sir Rowland Hill in Spain have 
been rewarded by due fame and honours, and his kind- 
ness and attention to the troops under his command, 
by which he obtained the immortal name of " the sol- 
dier's friend," are still fresh in the grateful recollec- 
tions of many a brave fellow whom he led to victory. 



Sir Roivland Hill. 



243 



The town of Shrewsbury,^ to mark its sense of the 
honour he had brought to his native county, returned 
him to parliament in 1812, and his brother, the late 
Colonel Hill, represented him on that occasion, and was 
chaired for him. Involved as he was in all the changes 
and perils of an arduous warfare, and engaged in 
harassing responsibilities, Sir Rowland Hill lost no 
opportunity of expressing to his uncle and namesake 
his sincere esteem, and of communicating to him, 
from time to time, accounts of the difficulties he had 
encountered and surmounted. Firmness and kindness, 
accompanied by the highest military talents, were the 
qualities which inspired the confidence, and ensured 
the affection, of all connected with this gallant officer. 
Persons coming from Spain, at this period, used fre- 
quently to call at Surry Chapel house with such tidings 
as they knew would be interesting to Mr. Hill, or, if 
they had been the bearers of letters to his nephew, to 
express in terms of the warmest gratitude, their sense 
of the way in which he had received them. There 
were several soldiers under Sir Rowland Hill's com- 
mand, who had been hearers of his uncle, who inquired 
after their welfare, from his nephew, with all the 
affectionate anxiety of a pastor for the members of his 
flock. Sir Rowland's letters contained answers, given 
in a manner that clearly explained the cause of the 
devotion to their general, which was so often exhibited 
by the brave men under his command. At the conclu- 
sion of a few lines, written evidently amidst the excite- 
ment and anxiety of a campaign, he says, " 1 hope my 
aunt received a note I wrote some weeks ago, to inform 
her that the soldier she inquired about was well ;" and 



' The splendid column erected afterwards to Lord Hill is known to every tra- 
veller on the great Irish road. 

11 2 



244 



Illuminations. 



I recollect a poor soldier's wife telling Mrs. Hill, " O, 
ma'am, we all respect Sir Rowland Hill for his kind- 
ness to us." An officer from Spain once came to the 
house at Surry Chapel, to bring Mr. Hill some intelli- 
gence of his nephews, who said, " Sir, your nephew. 
Sir Rowland Hill's calmness and self-possession are the 
admiration of the whole army. He never loses them 
for an instant, in the most trying situations. I was 
near him a short time ago, when he came up to an 
elevated spot, to order a piece of cannon to be placed 
on it. He spoke as coolly as if he had been in a room ; 
and though the shot flew about him like hail, he was 
perfectly unruffled." When such honourable mention 
of his nephew was made to Mr. Rowland Hill in con- 
versation, or read by him in the papers, his eyes filled 
with tears of pleasure, mingled with the apprehension 
- that the next news might be, that he had lost him in 
the hour of his military glory. A kind Providence, 
however, spared him this sorrow : the hero lived to 
wear the laurels he so bravely won, and to add, by 
every species of kindness, to the comfort of his vener- 
able relation in his last days. When the brilliant illu- 
minations took place to celebrate the victories of our 
arms, Mr. Hill placed a transparency in the front of 
Surry Chapel, which attracted much attention. At the 
head of it two hands held, on a scroll, the words — 
The tyrant is fallen." Under this came a quotation 
from Obadiah 3, 4, The pride of thine heart hath 
deceived thee, thou that divellest in the clefts of the 
rocJi', whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart. 
Who shall bring me down to the ground ? Though 
thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set 
thy nest among the stars, thence will I ht^ing thee 
down, saith the Lord. To this was added. Be wise 



Lord Hill, 



245 



uoiv^ therefore, O ye kings ; he instructed^ ye judges 
of the earth: Ps. ii, 10. The subject of the painting 
was the sun setting on the sea, exhibiting on the 
shore, to the left, a lion couching at the foot of a 
fortress near the trophies of war ; and to the right, a 
Iamb lying by the implements of agriculture, with a 
village church and a cottage before him. 

At the conclusion of the Peninsular war, Mr. Row- 
land Hill had the satisfaction to see his nephew 
advanced to the peerage, and to witness the honours 
with which he was welcomed on his return to his 
native country. Soon after his arrival, he took me with 
him one morning to Lord Hill's hotel in Hanover- 
square. He was at breakfast, surrounded by his com- 
panions in arms, who seemed much interested in the 
lively conversation of his uncle. After breakfast. Lord 
Hill went with us to see a picture of the Duke of Wel- 
lington, surrounded by a group of military officers, 
whom he had commanded in Spain. Before entering 
the carriage. Lord Hill, struck with the beauty of the 
horses, stopped to admire them, which was quite to the 
humour of Mr. Hill, who prided himself not a little on 
their appearance and docility. It was a day of great 
gratification to me as a boy ; but no youth could have 
enjoyed it more than my aged and indulgent relative. 

In addition to the other honours conferred upon 
Lord Hill, the city of London had voted him a sword, 
which was presented to him on the same day a simi- 
lar mark of distinction was given to Lord Beresford. 
Mr, Rowland Hill was invited to Guildhall, and good- 
naturedly allowed me to accompany him. His witty 
and original conversation attracted those around him 
who were assembled in the waiting room ; and never 
did he manifest a more redundant flow of spirits. In 



24)6 Presentation of a sword to Lord Hill, 

placing the sword in the hands of Lord Hill, the Cham- 
berlain alluded to the fact, that a Sir Rowland Hill of 
his family was the first Protestant Lord Mayor of 
London. As soon as Mr. Hill presented himself at the 
door of the Guildhall, the crowd who had been shaking 
hands with, and cheering his popular and gallant ne- 
phew, cried out, " Here comes the good old uncle," and 
followed him by loud huzzas as he departed. He could 
not help contrasting these expressions of respect, with 
the contempt, obloquy, persecution, and personal insults, 
of which he was the daily subject at the commencement 
of his ministry. Once, on the terrace at Hawkstone, 
about this time, he remarked to a lady who was walk- 
ing with him, and who witnessed the affectionate 
attentions which were paid him by Sir John Hill and 
his family — " You have seen how I am now received; 
here ; but in my youth I have often paced this spot 
bitterly weeping ; while, by most of the inhabitants of 
yonder house, I was considered as a disgrace to my 
family. But," he added, the tears trickling down his, 
aged cheeks, " it was for the cause of my God." The 
motives which ever actuated his conduct were a sin- 
cere desire for the extension of the Redeemer's king- 
dom, and a love for souls ; and the course he pursued 
arose chiefly from the advice of others, and the circum- 
stances of the times. His services, offered in the 
integrity of his heart, were accepted ; and even in this 
life he received the full accomplishment of the promises 
of Christ, to those who leave all to follow him. 

The honours which had been won by the relatives of 
Mr. Rowland Hill, the high estimation into which his 
own character had risen, and the respect shown him 
by all ranks of persons, might have had the effect of 
endearing him in his declining days too closely to this 



Illness of Mr, Rowland Hill. 



247 



world, had it not pleased God, in his wise providence, 
to counteract these dangers by the visitation of his 
chastising hand in sickness. A few months after the 
excitement caused by the presence of the sovereigns 
and others, who had contributed to the overthrow of 
Napoleon, and the scenes of gratification in which, by 
his connection with some of the heroes of the Penin- 
sula, he had been necessarily involved, my affectionate 
guardian was attacked by a severe and painful disease. 
This happened about the usual time of his returning 
from Wotton to London. His friends became seriously 
alarmed, and were anxious to bring him to town as 
soon as possible, that be might have the benefit of the 
medical skill of the metropolis. His feelings under 
sickness are thus expressed by himself in a letter to 
one of the members of Surry Chapel : " My days must 
be nearly ended, and consequently my life is compara- 
tively of little worth. Still may the languid efforts of 
my declining days prove not an unacceptable offering 
before him, by whose divine power our weakest efforts- 
may be crowned with the most abundant success. At 
present, however, I am obliged to give way to disease, 
and though perhaps nothing dangerous, yet exceedingly 
painful and lowering to the constitution. Yesterday I 
suffered severely, and to-day am very feverish, weak, 
and low, and how I shall be able to accomplish my 
journey to town as yet I cannot tell. This, however, 
I shall attempt as speedily as circumstances will admit." 
" In a few days," he proceeds, " it will be needful that 
I should write again, that it may be known how far I 
shall be able to attend on the accustomed services of the 
chapel, which, at present, were I there, I should not be 
able to perform. All this is from the hand of God. 
One at my time of life can have no reason to complain, 



248 



Illness of M7\ Rowland Hill. 



having been possessed of so much health and strength, 
for so many years. I have been favoured beyond most: 
God forbid that these light afflictions should excite the 
most distant murmuring from one that has cause for 
the most abundant thankfulness before God." The 
only difficulty with him in sickness was to prevent his 
preaching ; nothing but absolute physical inability 
would induce him to yield to the orders of his medical 
attendants, and the intreaties of his friends. To the 
letter from which the last quotation is taken Mrs. Hill 
added a postscript, in which she says, " The exertion of 
preaching is injurious to Mr. Hill, but I find it difficult 
to keep him from it." His removal to London was 
effected as soon as possible, where he was attended by 
Dr. Babington and Mr. Cline, with such skill and kind- 
ness that his complaint began quickly to give way. 
The former called so often and was so attentive, that 
his patient expressed some fear, lest such frequent 
visits should interfere with his own interests. The 
excellent physician replied, " Mr. Hill, I shall be happy 
indeed to be made in any way the instrument of your 
recovery, for I shall not only have the pleasure of seeing 
you in the enjoyment of health, but shall have con- 
ferx'ed a benefit upon numbers, to whom your ministry 
is made useful." By the blessing of God on the means 
used by these eminent medical advisers, he was restored 
to many years of labour and usefulness. 

During his illness, those who knew the restlessness 
of his temperament and impatience of confinement to 
the house, were surprised at seeing how he bore it. I 
remember the first evening on which he felt decidedly 
better. He was lying on a sofa in his drawing room, 
and we were just going down stairs, having taken 
leave of him, when he said — " Stop, I will have the 



Letter to Mr. Wathen. 



249 



servants up here, ring the bell." When they came in, 
he said — " We will go to prayer," and, remaining on 
the sofa, he breathed forth a short prayer, full of ex- 
pressions of gratitude to God, and earnest dedication 
of returning strength to his glory. An answer to the 
affectionate inquiries of his friend, Mr. Wathen, will 
prove the truly Christian state of mind in which he 
welcomed returning health. 

MY VERY DEAR KIND FRIEND, December bth, 1814, 

You will be more assuredly convinced that 
I am better, if I answer the letter you have so kindly 
written to my wife. 

Yes, the Lord in infinite wisdom and goodness has 
chastened and afflicted me, but has not given me over 
to death. Only on this day se'nnight I was in such a 
state, that if the Lord had not put a speedy termina- 
tion to my disease, it must have speedily terminated 
my life ; but, by the blessing of God on some of the 
best medical help that London affords, I am still pre- 
served, and O that it may be for his future glory, as 
far as he condescends to engage me as an instrument 
in his hands, for the future good of his church and 
people ! Having already terminated the seventieth 
year of my life, it becomes me to look upon my pre- 
sent recovery as a short respite, rather than a long re- 
prieve. Still the Lord may design that we should do 
something for him, and more than we may expect, 
even in the latter stages of our lives, and we shall not 
wish to die, if still we have any thing to do for him in 

this lower world of woe. 

^ ^ * * ^ ^ ^ * . 

You say nothing about Mrs. Wathen's health. We 
would, therefore, conclude she is better. What a 



250 



Letter to Mr, Wathen. 



mercy it is to enjoy health, if we are but enabled to 
enjoy it to the glory of God. 

You kindly ask what you can do for me. I answer, 
pray for me, that my sickness may be sanctified. This 
blessing I have had from thousands. I am astonished 
that such an unworthy creature should have been so 
laid upon the hearts of so many of the people of God. 

I still continue convalescent, and am gaining strength, 
and really long, in my feeble way, again to be set at 
work. 

Your ever most affectionate 

and obliged friend, &c. 

O. P. Wathen, Esq. ROWLAND HiLL. 

No one was more anxious for his friend's recovery, 
and to shew him every attention, than Mr. Wathen. 
As soon as his appetite returned, he sent him venison, 
woodcocks, and such other delicacies as he knew would 
be acceptable, for which he received the following 
letter of thanks : — 

MY VERY DEAR SIR, London, December I6th, 1814. 

Your very frequent and kind inquiries after 
my health are most affectionately acknowledged by us 
both. Through the mercy of God, since my last attack, 
which is now near three weeks ago, I have felt no 
return of disease, and my strength is considerably 
recruited. O that, through the sparing and restoring 
mercies of our God, we may be dedicated to live more 
abundantly to his glory ! We are thankful for the good 
news you send us respecting the health of Mrs. Wathen. 
We are never so thankful for health as when we have 
been deprived of it. We are told, that chastisement is 
sent for our profit and for this purpose, " that we may 



Mr. Rowland HilVs walks. 



251 



be made partakers of his holiness," The greatest 
blessing that God can confer, is his own divine image 
on the heart. This is heaven within us, and what 
would heaven be without his image when there ! 

A thousand thanks for your kind prog. In a few 
days we shall partake of our venison feast, and shall 
remember with gratitude the affectionate hand that 
sent it. The woodcocks were devoured to-day ; they 
were both very good. Neither Moorfields,^ Snows- 
fields, Lincoln's-inn-fields, Leicester-fields, Saint 
George's-fields, Saint Giles-in-the-fields, nor any other 
fields about London, could have produced us such a 
treat. 

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

My kind love to Mr. . I know his services will 

be acceptable at Wotton, and I hope Mr. — 's will 
prove the same at Rod borough. Remember us to all 
your family, and believe me. 

Yours most affectionately, 

O. p. Wathen, Esq. R. HiLL. 

I recollect going with Mr. Hill the first time he 
walked out after he regained his strength. With 
much persuasion he put on his great coat. In the 
streets he received innumerable congratulations from 
persons he met ; from tradesmen, who ran out of their 
shops, and from the inmates of every house he called 
at. The day was fine for the season. When he re- 
turned, his man inquired, " Sir, where is your great 
coat ? " " That's more than I can tell you," he replied, 
laughing ; " but I'll tell you where I have been, and 
you must go a hunting after it by and by." The 
ludicrous occurrences which resulted from his forget- 
fulness of such matters often afforded us considerable 



252 Ail aide-de-camp of the Ernperor Aleamnder. 

merriment, in which no one partook more heartily 
than himself. If he had not been accompanied by a 
careful servant, parts of his dress would have been 
frequently separated in his journeys, by very wide 
intervals. If ever any man had attained to the digito 
monstrarier, it was Mr. Rowland Hill. Wherever he 
walked in London, persons were whispering, " There's 
Rowland Hill," and when, as was his custom, he stood 
to look at the prints in the shop windows, he attracted 
great attention. Of this, however, he never could be 
persuaded, and was just as much at ease in the crowded 
streets, as in his own grounds at Wotton. If a com- 
panion said to him, " You had better come on, sir, 
there are so many people staring at you," he would 
say, " O no, there's nobody thinks it worth while to 
look at me, I am sure." This was not affectation : he 
ever truly esteemed others better than himself, in the 
spirit of genuine humility. 

During the visits of the sovereigns to this country, 
a pious general, in the staff of the Emperor Alexander, 
was a C(mstant attendant on the ministry of Mr. Hill. 
From him he gleaned many interesting particulars of 
the autocrat, and had no doubt of his real piety and 
love for the Bible Society. This distinguished officer 
very frequently dined at Surry Chapel House, and the 
conversation sometimes turned upon the Greek church, 
the errors of which were ably pointed out by the vener- 
able host. One day, when a remark was made on the 
admirable petition — By all thy sufferings^ known 
and unknown^ good Liord deliver us^^ he said, " I con- 
sider that prayer to be one of the most touching ever 
uttered. The unhnoivn sufferings of Christ ! All 
his described sufferings were slight, in comparison with 
what infinite holiness must have felt in the midst of 



An aide-de-camp of the Emperor Alexander. 253 

sinners ; the light, the glory of heaven, in the dark- 
ness and impurity of the world, yet spotless, and 
without sin ! O my Saviour, no tongue can describe, 
no angel can fathom the abyss of thy suffering for me 
a sinner. As I cannot reach the infinite height of thy 
love and thy glory in heaven, so I cannot descend into 
the depths of thy sorrows when here on earth. I can 
only wonder and adore ! " Often did he burst forth 
with strains such as these, and so intense were his 
feelings, that every nerve seemed shaken with the 
workings of his mind. Never was any Christian 
more sensibly alive to the power and beauty of the 
mysteries of redeeming love. 



254 



CHAPTER XI. 

Festivities at the conclusion of the war. 

Though no person offered sincerer thanksgivings for 
the restoration of peace than Mr, Rowland Hill, he 
constantly expressed his disapprobation of the manner 
in which the victories of our arms were celebrated in 
this country. In allusion to the roasting of oxen and 
sheep, and other festivities, at Wotton, he says, in 
a letter to a friend, " had twice as much been distri- 
buted, in a wholesome and orderly manner, I should 
have been glad to have been in the thickest of it 
but as he considered such modes of manifesting a 
nation's joy neither appropriate to the occasion, nor 
really beneficial to the poor, he declined participating 
in them. I was with him when he received the news 
of the battle of Waterloo; on finding that his five 
gallant nephews had survived a contest in which so 
many brave heroes fell, he lifted up his hand without 
uttering a single word. The expression of his coun- 
tenance is still pictured in my memory : it manifested 
a stronger sense of gratitude to God than could have 
been conveyed by words. He rose from his chair, 
went to the window, looked towards the lovely view 
before him, as if to conceal the emotions by which he 
was unmanned, and left the room without speaking. 
Though at that time in his seventy-first year, he had 
engagements more numerous and fatiguing than most 
young men could have gone through. He never 
preached less than four times a week to his people 
in London, and five at Wotton, besides meeting the 



Fatigues of Mr. Roivland Hill. 



255 



society on a Monday evening ; in addition to which, 
there was scarcely a religious or benevolent institution, 
according with the views he had adopted as his rule of 
action, which did not claim and receive a large share 
of his exertions. In one week, when past the age 
just mentioned, he went through the exertion of tra- 
velling a hundred miles in a mountainous part of 
W ales, and preached twenty-one sermons ! Sometimes 
he complained that he was tired on a Sunday evening ; 
but the vivacity of his conversation, and the liveliness 
of his manner, used occasionally to elicit the remark, 
" Well, sir, yours is a curious sort of fatigue ; " to 
which he would reply, " I was tired just now, but I 
forgot it." In a letter written at this time, he observes 
how wonderfully he had been favoured with health. 

Thanks be to God," he says, " with a very few ex- 
ceptions, I have had an abundant share of this blessing 
for upwards of seventy years. No wonder if I now 
begin to complain that my limbs get stiff, and that 
I cannot accomplish similar active exertions to those 
of former days. Still may the will be the same, when 
the power is denied. The glory of our lives should 
be to live to the glory of God ; and what are all our 
doings compared to what our most merciful Redeemer 
has done for us? O for a spirit of full dedication to 
the glory of God ! " In another letter he remarks, 
** Old as I am, I am just returned from a long mission- 
ary ramble ; but I feel I am getting old. O that I 
may work well to the last ! " In all his journeys, even 
when he had reached a period beyond that usually 
allotted to man, he was disconcerted if he did not find 
a pulpit ready for him every evening. In one of his 
letters, fixing his days for preaching, on his road to 
some place, he says, " Ever since my Master has put 



256 



Qualifications of preacliers. 



me into office, I have ever esteemed it my duty to 
remember his admonition — ^ As ye go, preach.' " His 
general answer to invitations to houses on his route 
was, " I shall be happy to come to you, if you can find 
me a place to preach in." 

To preach, and to promote the preaching of Christ, 
was ever the most prominent object of his life, and he 
made personal ease and convenience entirely subser- 
vient to it. This induced him to assist itinerants 
whose qualifications he approved ; but he never coun- 
tenanced the slightest interference with the sphere of 
a clergyman whose doctrines and zeal were admired 
by him. In writing his opinion of the sort of persons 
required for such a work, he says, ''^ lively, zealous, 
wise, simple-hearted, liberal-minded, &c. &c. preachers, 
are all vre want. These cannot be mxanufactured at 
academies. O what huge offence I gave the other 
day by warning young preachers not to travel about 
the country with a sack of dried tongues for sale, 
wherever they went. It is a poor traffic, and ill-cal- 
culated to bring souls to Christ." Again he remarked 
on another occasion, " holy and faithful ministers, 
blessed with equal ability and zeal, are greatly needed. 
We should deal much with the Lord of the harvest to 
raise them up and send them forth. How different 
the poor tools of ministers of our manufacturing, when 
compared with the burning and shining lights the Lord 
can send forth." 

Though at this stage of his life Mr. Rowland Hill 
was free from most of those temporal cares and 
anxieties which are the painful lot of many of God's 
people, he had to mourn the unexpected decease of 
some highly valued friends of his flock. Two of these 
were Mr. Beames, and Mr. Benjamin Neale^ the eldest 



The Neale family. 



257 



son of the proprietor of the well-known, glass and china 
repository, in St. Paul's Church-yard, men devoted to 
the cause of truth and benevolence. Mr. Hill's affection 
for the former of these excellent Christians is thus 
strongly expressed in a letter to Mr. B. Neale : — I 
ought to love him ; he is my wise, and good and faith- 
ful friend. Vital Christianity creates many such, and 
there is no real friendship out of Christ. It cannot be, 
for there is no love out of Christ, for he alone is the 
centre and source of love." When attending the 
funeral, Mr. Hill was so exceedingly affected that he 
was unable to proceed with the service at the grave, 
and gave full vent in tears to the ebullition of his 
feelings. At length recovering a little, he thus patheti- 
cally apologised to the assembly — " Forgive me, my 
friends, I loved the dear man so well." 

From the family of the Neales Mr. Hill had re- 
ceived for many years the strongest proofs of attach- 
ment, and maintained such an intercourse with them 
as should subsist between a pastor and the affectionate 
members of his congregation. Mr. Neale was a man 
of the strictest integrity, and appropriated to the cause 
of charity and religion, a large share of the income he 
had the good fortune to acquire by diligence in busi- 
ness. One of his sons, Mr. Cornelius Neale, obtained 
the first mathematical and second classical honours of 
his year at Cambridge : he was senior wrangler and 
second chancellor's medallist. His literary attainments 
were not more remarkable than the kindness of his 
disposition, of which I had three years' happy expe- 
rience, being placed under his able tuition through the 
recommendation of niy excellent guardian. Mr. Cor- 
nelius Neale married the accomplished daughter of 
Dr. John Mason Good, the well-known author of many 

s 



258 



Letter to Mrs. B. Neale. 



valuable works. The sincerity of Mr. Hill's regard 
for Mr. Benjamin Neale will appear from the following 
letter addressed to Mrs. Neale, in allusion to the alarm- 
ing state of her husband's health : 

MY DEAR MADAM, Wottm, August 22, 1815. 

While I feel myself gratified for your kind 
attention, in sending me the information respecting the 
dangerous state of Mr. Neale's health from a recent 
attack, yet no news could have affected me more, as I 
have no friend upon earth that I have reason more 
sincerely to value and esteem. These are most painful 
events, and under them it requires a great sacrifice of 
our own wills to say — " Thy will be done." I do not 
blame myself for this struggle. It is no sign that we 
value the blessing of God, in the enjoyment of those 
who appeared to be raised up for useful and valuable 
purposes, if we can part with them without regret. 
That mind is badly framed that prefers stoical indiffer- 
ence to Christian sensibility; and though the pain is 
abundantly more acute, where those finer feelings of 
the mind are found to exist, yet who that deserves the 
name of a human being would wish to be without 
them? The man without natural affection is but a 
monster in human shape. To weep with those that 
weep, is as much our duty, as to rejoice with those that 
rejoice, while there is a secret consolation that it flows 
from the mind of Christ within us ; for when the family 
of his friend Lazarus partook of the cup of human 
woe, Jesus wept. 

We are not to live in this world of woe, without 
being called to the exercise of the same sort of feelings 
by similar events. Mrs. Hill's spirits and strength 



Letter to Mrs. B. Neale. 



259 



have been exceedingly enervated by attending on her 
dying brother at Wells. 

^^^^^^^^ 

Your best beloved has been enabled to live to God, 
and such die to be eternally with him. 

As soon as I have finished this letter I must write 
on another similar subject. This morning's post has 
brought me the tidings of the dangerous illness of a 
younger brother — not my brother Brian, who, I be- 
lieve, is known to you, and I trust is known to God, 
but of another brother. 

You know I shall be naturally anxious to hear from 
you, or some of the family, on a speedy day. I just 
tell you how I am to be situated, that you may know 
how to direct. I shall continue in this place till Wed- 
nesday in the next week, the 30th instant, when I go 
to Portsmouth for Mr. Griffin,^ where I shall continue 
about a fortnight before my return. 

May the supporting hand be upon you. With most 
affectionate love to all. 

Yours very sincerely, 

Mrs.B.Neale. R. HiLL. 

On the death of Mr. B. Neale, Mr. Hill thus beau- 
tifully addressed the language of condolence to his 
widow : — 

MY DEAR MADAM, Wotton, August 14, 1816. 

Not knowing how far your mind might have 
been overpowered by the heavy bereavement you have 
been called to sustain, I was just preparing to make 

' One of Mr. Hill's constant supplies at Surry Chapel, and the author of an excel- 
lent Funeral Sermon on his death. 

S 2! 



260 



Letter to Mrs. B, Neate. 



some inquiries from Mr. C. Neale, an immediate atten- 
tion to which I feared might too much revive the 
sorrows of your mind. I am exceedingly thankful, 
however, by the contents of your letter, to find that 
you have been supported with so much calmness and 
sedateness of spirit, under a loss so irreparable and 
severe. Still, not irreparable, if he who decreed it is 
more abundantly the portion of our hearts ; nor yet 
severe, if we can believe that the darkest providence 
has a brighter side than the eye of sense can discern : 
and I am the more thankful for you, dear madam, 
since I am satisfied, that holy serenity of mind is no 
proof of apathy and unfeeling indifference, but rather 
of a dignified and submissive calmness, before him who 
doeth all things well. I therefore greatly thank God 
on your behalf. 

Though none of those endearing ties that nature 
forms, subsisted between me and our late invaluable 
friend, yet I know not one upon the earth I more 
affectionately esteemed, and the loss of whose advice 
and friendship I more sincerely regret. But these 
painful deprivations are all from the hand of God. 
We deserve them as judgments, and by raising up 
others again, he can restore them in mercy; and if our 
outward adversity tends to inward prosperity, even 
from our sharpest trials we shall obtain joy and glad- 
ness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Fruit- 
less sorrow can produce nothing better than rebellious 
murmurings before God ; while patient submission 
sweetens every bitter, and enables us to say that all is 
well. No doubt, but that the reflection of the loss you 
have sustained will be frequently returning to your 
mind ; but still it is not an unpleasing melancholy, 
while we can • recollect those pleasing qualities, those 



Attempt to assess Surry Chapel, 



261 



heavenly graces which cannot die with those that die, 
and which they once possessed, while they were on this 
lower, this pilgrim state with us. 

As you say nothing particularly respecting your 
mother's mind, I trust she is blessed with the same 
calmness, and holy resignation of spirit to the will of 
God, which you have been permitted to enjoy. It is 
an honour to parents to have children that were their 
joy and glory while in life, and an inexpressible con- 
solation, to believe that they are in glory after life. 

* e!f * * * ^ * 

With the sincerest regard to the remains of a family 
for whom I have the highest love and esteem, believe 
me to be. 

Dear madam. 

Yours, very affectionately, 

Mrs. B. Neale. ROWLAND HiLL. 



I was much with Mr. Rowland Hill in the year 1816, 
during the period of his resistance to the attempt made 
to assess Surry Chapel to the parish rates. By his ex- 
ertions these efforts proved unsuccessful; but I never 
recollect him more agitated and anxious, under any 
circumstances. I accompanied him to the court on the 
day of the sixth appeal, and witnessed the numerous 
congratulations which he received when the decision 
proved to be in his favour. With most of the principal 
inhabitants of the parish of Christchurch he lived upon 
very friendly terms, and pleasing interchanges of civil- 
ity took place between himself and his neighbours. 
Mr. Hill's pamphlets on the subject of rating his chapel 
are known to the public, as well as his principles of 
action : it will not, therefore, be necessary for me to 
advert to them at any length. Every investigation of 



262 



Churchmen and Dissenters. 



the finances of Surry Chapel, and the emoluments of its 
minister, only reflected credit on his disinterestedness, 
and the benevolence of a worthy people. Hurt as he 
was by the repeated trials of his opponents to attain 
their object, he was, if possible, even more grieved at 
the insinuation that he was hostile to the Established 
Church. No one circumstance," he declared, " would 
give him so much satisfaction as to see the Church of 
England what she should be — the living temple of the 
living God — the palladium of British piety, and the 
glory of the land." 

The dissenters are much indebted to Mr. Rowland 
Hill for his exertions on behalf of their religious 
liberties, as well as for the good advice he gave them 
upon all occasions. I recollect his coming home one 
day from a meeting, where some observations had been 
made on the privileges of churchmen which he disap- 
proved. I took the liberty," he said, " to make a 
few remarks ; and, among other things, I told them, 
you know from time immemorial, there has been a 
certain state saddle, and those who have a firm seat in 
it will naturally kick off those who try to get up behind ; 
and if you could get into it, you would do just the 
same." His sentiments with respect to the clergy were : 
" It is the chartered privilege of the church to lead, 
and let her ministers outlive and outshine the dissenters, 
who are so much dreaded by some as rivals, by a con- 
duct which is consistent with their sacred office, and 
we shall soon see what will be the result. No churches 
are empty where the doctrines of the reformation are 
duly urged, with purity and energy, upon the people's 
minds. ' 

He used to seize every opportunity of shewing his 
respect for the active ministers of the Church, and was 



Anecdote. 



very particular in attending the anniversary sermon, 
preached by a clergyman, for the London Missionary 
Society. If invited elsewhere on that day, he replied, 
" No, no, I always go to church, and always intend 
it ; " and on one of these occasions, a most interesting 
circumstance occurred. The preacher was Dr. Gilbee, 
formerly rector of Barby, Northamptonshire, whose 
discourse, from John x, 16, was full of piety and Chris- 
tian love. Mr. Hill was so delighted, that he said, 
" When I found that he was drawing to a conclusion, 
I could hardly help crying out, ' go on. Dr. Gilbee, 
pray give us a little more.'" At the close of the 
service he went to the vestry, and, opening the door 
gently, asked permission to introduce himself. 

" Dear Dr. Gilbee, will you permit a poor unworthy 
servant of our Divine Master to thank you for this day's 
sermon?" 

" O dearest Mr. Hill," exclaimed Dr. Gilbee, " come 
in, come in; how glad I am to see you. It was under 
your ministry that I was first led to God!" 

This declaration was followed by such emotions, as 
are experienced by those alone who know what it is to 
reciprocate the affection engendered in their hearts, by 
the communication of the spirit and image of a crucified 
Redeemer. 

Mr. Hill was much esteemed by his late Royal 
Highness the Duke of Kent, who took every oppor- 
tunity of shewing him both public and private marks 
of his regard. I remember his coming twice to Surry 
Chapel; and in the course of conversation afterwards, 
in the drawing-room, his Royal Highness mentioned 
how much he was struck by the service, particularly the 
singing. 

Mr. Jacob, the organist of Surry Chapel, was a per- 



264 



Jacob the Organist. 



former of first-rate talent, and had refused many advan- 
tageous offers of employment, merely from conscientious 
principles.^ Mr. Rowland Hill indulged this excellent 
musician with an annual sacred performance, for the be- 
nefit of his alms-houses, to which persons were admitted 
by five shilling tickets. Choruses, unusually grand and 
inspiring, were succeeded by the most striking displays 
of the power of the organ, played by such masters of 

* He was a great favourite with his minister, and sometimes the subject of his 
innocent pleasantries. One exceedingly fine day, when the sky was without a cloud 
and the glass at set fair, Jacob called with a huge umbrella under his arm, when 
Mr. Hill began in his playful manner to joke him about it, and he said the reason 
he took it with him was that the time was " prophesied to be wet weather " in 
Moore's Almanack, which he constantly went by. " Why," said Mr. Hill, " you 
put me in mind of an old woman at Wotton who always did the same, and when I 
laughed, at her about it, she said, ' Dear me, sir, he must be true aboutweather when 
he can prophesy eclipses.' " Two or three days afterwards my relative being, to use 
the old fashioned phrase, "upon the merry pin," sent Jacob a barometer with a 
note containing the following lines : — 

There is a physician of wonderful fame, 
Whether dead or alive, Francis Moore is his name ; 
Yet, help'd by the planets, he prophesies still 
What weather comes next, with wonderful skill. 
This astrologer knows whetJier rainy or dry. 
Whether thunder or tempest shall blacken the sky ; 
Whether frost, sleet, or snow in December shall be, 
Whether March or September shall cover the sea 
With storms and tornadoes, which surely shall make 
E'en the stout-hearted seaman to tremble and quake. 
Then who can believe what barometers say. 
When this famous astrologer, clear as the day, 
Can see at one glance what weather must rise, 
By the dance of the planets, to manage the skies ? 
But not to afiront you, if in your esteem 
Francis Moore and his prophecies ever have been, 
I send you a prophet more modest and shy. 
That can venture to tell you the state of the sky. 
When from pupil to pupil you fly like a bee 
To teach tweedle-dum and eke tweedle-dee, 
This prophet, if minded, will tell to a tee 
How far your umbrella is needed or no. 
To cover your noddle from hail, rain, or snow. 
Then give my poor prophet a place in your house, 
And there he'll abide as still as a mouse. 
While on staircase or lobby he quietly stands, 
No eating or drinking, or fee he demands. 
Still, precisely the hour he does not pretend 
To say when the rain or the snow will descend, 
Yet he'll give you a warning most clear and correct 
What changes of weather you next may expect. 
While Moore, the astrologer, can but relate 
A guess at the best as it passes his pate. 



Oratorios, at Surry Chapel. 



265 



their art as Wesley, Crotch, and Jacob. The thunder- 
storm of the latter musician produced an almost awful 
effect; to which a performance on the swell of the 
organ, accompanied by Salomon, the celebrated violinist, 
or by the matchless Lindley on the violoncello, formed 
a soft and charming contrast. Many persons were 
pleased with these oratorios; others objected to them. 
Mr. Hill, however, as he positively refused to allow 
any voluntary on the Sunday, in his chapel, thought it 
only fair to give the excellent musician who conducted 
the singing an opportunity of shewing his powers, 
considering that the character of the music, and the 
charitable object in view rendered the permission per- 
fectly allowable. 

Mr. Hill first heard Jacob at a commemoration of 
Handel, in Westminster Abbey, where he sung as a 
boy. He was appointed organist to Surry chapel at a 
very early age, and continued in that situation for 
many years. His ear was so fine, that he was selected 
by the great Haydn to tune his pianoforte. Unhappy 
differences between Mr. Hill and himself separated 
them after a long connexion ; but in his last illness 
he sent for his venerable pastor, and died expressing 
towards him the same affection and veneration he had 
felt in former years. 

Repeated attempts to assess Surry Chapel were not 
the only events by which its devoted pastor was 
harassed at this period of his life. Certain occurrences 
at Wotton, which ended in the departure of his resident 
assistant from that place, occupied a large share of his 
attention. He became exceedingly anxious to meet with 
a suitable successor for this situation, and diligently 
inquired for a young man of ability and piety, to be 
his coadjutor while living, and succeed him when he 



266 



Theophilus Jones. 



died. Such a one he found, to his great delight, in a 
young Welshman, named Theophilus Jones, who was 
originally apprenticed to the trade of a cabinet-maker ; 
but gave such signs of zeal, piety, and preaching 
talents, that he had long attracted the notice of those 
who recommended him to Mr. Hill. I was present at 
his first coming to Wotton, and recollect the surprise 
excited by the easy address and sensible conversation 
of a person only just emerged from obscurity. Mr. Hill 
and his hearers were equally pleased with their new 
minister, who, had his taste been corrected, and his 
understanding trained by early education, would pro- 
bably have ranked amongst the first preachers and 
theologians of his day. The congregation, diminished 
by reason of the differences of many with their former 
pastor, was not only restored to its previous numbers, 
but augmented by the accession of a large body of 
fresh members, attracted by the popularity of Mr. Jones. 
After a short probation he was ordained, according to 
the mode adopted by dissenters, as the regular minister 
of Mr, Hill's Wotton Chapel, where he continued to 
labour till the death of his patron, whose funeral he 
survived little more than a week. The increased 
attendance at the Tabernacle, and the numerous con- 
versions which followed the ministrations of this 
laborious young man, gave Mr. Hill the sincerest 
pleasure. His anxiety for such a result he thus 
expresses in a letter to Mr. Jones, soon after he com- 
menced his residence at Wotton : " How thankful shall 
I be to hear that the Lord prospers you in the work, 
makes you a complete healer of the breaches, and has 
given you the honour more than to fill up the vacant 
places that division, and sin, and death, has made 
among us. I find very few ministers of a truly devoted 



Theophilus Jones. 



267 



and spiritual cast. Such as are made up by the arti- 
fice of man are never fit to do the work that God has 
to accomplish in his living church, his spiritual house, 
in which he himself condescends to dwell; and believe 
me, my dear youth, as long as God continues to bless 
you, I trust nothing will be wanting in me, to add to 
your happiness and comfort in life. The next time 
you meet in society, present the people with my love; 
and if there have been jarring strings among us, for 
the time to come may they be so well tuned by the 
skilful hand of our God, that they may never jar again, 
O for peace and prosperity within the lamp of God. 
Nothing can be done for him, without Him. O for 
more simple dependance on His almighty strength." 
He gives him also the following hints as to preaching: 
" Rash preaching always disgusts ; timid preaching 
does nothing but leave poor souls fast asleep; while 
bold preaching, if delivered under an affectionate love 
to the souls of men, and with a humble desire to 
promote the glory of God, is the only preaching that is 
owned and blessed of God." 

When he received the first reports of his labours 
and success, he wrote to him, — " My dear youth, while 
God blesses you, I trust it will be my happiness to 
make you happy, and to uphold you to the utmost of 
my feeble powers. I trust Wotton will be a place 
of profitable and active retirement, preparatory to a 
sphere of more extended usefulness, on a future day. 
If you were to continue the same plain bawling Welsh- 
man you are now, in your present situation, I might 
observe, go on; never mind breaking grammar, if the 
Lord enables you to break hearts, and bring souls to 
Christ ; but if you could acquire a little more culture, 
without losing any of your zeal and holy simplicity of 



2G8 



Theophilus Jones. 



heart, your usefulness might be more extended. I 
would not give you a single sixpence to have your 
tongue dressed at any of our modern academies; they 
are, in general, sad soul-starvation places. Only take 
the hint, and work on, and blunder on, as hard and as 
fast as you can." 

The advice thus offered was not lost upon Mr. Jones. 
He laboured hard to overcome the defects arising from 
his want of education, and in a measure succeeded. At 
length Mr. Hill, seeing his praiseworthy improvement, 
determined to make him one of his London supplies, 
and invited him in these terms : " I am very sorry I 
have not time to say more, than that I love you much, 
because the Lord blesses you, and that makes me bless 
God for you. It does my heart good to hear of you in 
my old age. Mr. — — is to give you five pounds 
towards your journey to London; and the first thing 
you shall do, shall be to preach Welsh in our chapel, 
and that will clear your throat for a little English after- 
wards." By excessive application, Mr. Jones had stored 
his naturally gifted mind with no ordinary share of 
doctrinal theology, and had collected an admirable 
library of old divines, in which he was very generously 
assisted by his patron and friends. Hence, while his 
manner was energetic in the extreme, his voice at times 
overpowering, and his delivery without the slightest 
culture, such was the excellence of his matter, and so 
searching were his sermons, that all defects were over- 
looked in the midst of a flow of admirable and awaken- 
ing truths. Mr. Hill wrote to him on this subject, in 
his own kind and original style. " As for matter,''' he 
says, " I shall not be ashamed to own you as a brother 
minister all the world over ; but as to manner, you 
greatly put me in mind of myself in my younger days. 



Theophilus Jones, 



209 



When I was once set a-going, I was almost afraid to 
stop and pause, even for a little breath, lest I should be 
stuck fast. Now, I prophesy concerning you, that your 
ministry will be more powerful, if, at times, you are 
less vehement. I say at times ; for there are those sort 
of solemn sentiments that require the utmost energy 
that can be adopted, but the same sort of monotony of 
loud speaking throughout spoils this good effect ; even 
your bodily health will feel the advantage of [less exer- 
tion], and the people will be benefited thereby. Still, 
my dear youth, let not any painful cold attention to 
manner and voice, chill the warmth of your heart, 
and the fervency of your zeal to bring souls to God. 
Let it be your main study to feel well, that you may 
make the people feel well, and then good will be 
the result. Go on and prosper, and be assured that 
you have a very warm place in my affections and 
esteem ; and that it is with uncommon satisfaction and 
joy I bless God that you have been sent amongst us." 
On another occasion, Mr. Hill expressed himself in 
terms well worthy the attention of every minister. 
After inquiring how his young assistant prospered, 
what fresh trophies were won over the powers of dark- 
ness, and how the children of God prospered among 
themselves, he proceeds : — " In the church of Christ, 
life begets life, all the world over, and death generates 
death. O that I was more cautious respecting myself 
as a minister, as so much depends on us how it is with 
the people also. We work badly upon the hearts of 
others, but as God in infinite mercy works well in us ; 
we preach best when we feel best ; and the nearer we 
live to God, the better we feel. A religion without 
feeling is no religion. How can we have repentance, 
without feeling holy sorrow for sin, and indignation 



270 



Village preaching. 



against it ? How can we have faith in the Lord Jesus, 
and behold that infinite fulness of grace treasured up 
in him for us, without rejoicing in him, while w^e be- 
lieve with joy unspeakable and full of glory ? Converts 
made by mere human persuasion only corrupt the 
church, having nothing but a name to live, while they 
are dead. Death must be the result of any connexion 
with them ; while nothing revives the church so de- 
lightfully, as when it is frequently the birth-place of 
new-born souls. Such are the only evidences and 
seals, to the ministers themselves, that they are sent of 
God." 

The course Mr, Rowland Hill prescribed to Mr. 
Jones, was much like that pursued by himself. He 
was not willing that he should lose a single day, and 
offered him poor old Bob," his favourite saddle-horse, 
to carry him on preaching expeditions to all the vil- 
lages around Wotton. In one of his letters he says, 
I hope old Bobby and you are perfectly agreed about 
village preaching — -and in another, " The best covet- 
ousness a minister can possess, is to be covetous after 
the souls of men. We should judge our work is never 
done, while one single unconverted soul is within our 
reach. Alas ! then, how little we have done in com- 
parison of what we have to do ! O for more of that 
holy zeal which makes us travail in birth again, till 
Christ shall be formed within the souls of thousands 
that are dead in trespasses and sins !" 

No man ever had more solemn views than Mr. Row- 
land Hill of the true nature of the ministerial work, 
and of the necessity of a humble dependence on the 
Lord s assistance for a blessing in it. One of his 
remarks was—" If favoured at any time with what is 
called a good opportunity, I am too apt to catch myself 



Qu a lificatioJi s fu r th e ministry . 



271 



saying ' well done I,' when I should lie in the dust, 
and give God all the glory." Another was — " Lord, 
make me distrustful of myself, that I may confide in 
thee alone — self-dependence is the Pharisee's high road 
to destruction." " Oh dear," he said, what poor stuff 
makes a preacher in the present day ! — a useful minis- 
ter must have brains in his head, prudence in his 
conduct, and grace in his heart ; which is more than 
too many of the made-up talkers, who set up in these 
times for preachers, have." 

He was accustomed strongly to urge on all who 
entered the sacred office, the necessity of maintaining 
Christian and heavenly tempers among their people ; 
" Some folks," he would say, " appear as if they had 
been bathed in crah verjuice in their infancy, which 
penetrated through their skins, and has made them 
sour-blooded ever since — but this will not do for a 
messenger of the gospel ; as he bears a message, so he 
must manifest a spirit of love." A minister having 
observed to him, that notwithstanding the fault found 
with his dry sermons, there were hopes of their useful- 
ness, for Sampson had slain the Philistines with the 
jaw-bone of an ass — " True, he did," replied Mr. Hill, 
"but it was a moist jaw-bone." He used to like 
Dr. Ryland's advice to his young academicians — 
" Mind, no sermon is of any value, or likely to be use- 
ful, which has not the three R's in it — Ruin by the 
Fall — Redemption by Christ — Regeneration by the 
Holy Spirit." Of himself he remarked, " My aim, in 
every sermon, is a stout and lusty call to sinners, to 
quicken the saints, and to be made a universal blessing 
to all." It was a favourite saying with him — " The 
nearer we live to God, the better we are enabled to 
serve him. O how I hate my own noise, when I have 



272 



Qualificatio7is for the mmistry. 



nothing to make a noise about. Heavenly wisdom 
creates heavenly utterance." In a letter to Mr. Jones 
he observes — " There is something in preaching the 
gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, 
I long to get at. At times, I think I feel somewhat 
like it, and then I bawl almost as bad as the W elshman. 
If we deal with divine realities, we ought to feel them 
such, and then the people will in general feel with us, 
and acknowledge the power that does wonders on the 
heart ; while dry, formal, discussional preaching, leaves 
the hearers just where it found them. Still, they who 
are thus favoured, had need to be favoured with a deal . 
of humility. We are too apt to be proud of that 

which is not our own O humility, humility, 

humility !" 

It is no wonder, with such impressions as to the 
nature of his work, and the state of his mind, that 
Mr. Rowland Hill's preaching was so honoured and 
blessed of God. " Lord, help," was his constant, ear- 
nest prayer, and it was heard. 



273 



CHAPTER XII. 

Village itinerancy. 

The too long neglected condition of a large portion of 
our rural population, and the desecration of the Sab- 
bath by every species of unholy pastime, were evils 
earnestly deplored, and assiduously endeavoured to be 
corrected by Mr. Rowland Hill, wherever his influence 
extended. With this view, he was for many years 
devoted to the promotion of village preaching; not for 
the purpose of interference, to assist the growth of a 
sect within the legitimate sphere of an exemplary 
clergyman, but to gather into the fold of Christ those 
who wandered as sheep having no shepherd. For the 
furtherance of this object, he became a very active 
member of a society called the Village Itinerancy, on 
whose committees, I find from the memoranda of his 
engagements, he was a frequent attendant. It was in 
the year 1796 that proposals were made for the estab- 
lishment of this institution, to which a theological 
seminary was added in the year 1803. The tuition of 
the students has long been superintended by the Rev. 
George Collison, a truly pious and excellent man, much 
esteemed by Mr. Hill, and whose primary object is to 
make every other species of knowledge subsidiary to 
that of the Scriptures. 

No minister can be permitted to occupy any of the 
stations selected by this society, whose sentiments 
" are not conformable to the doctrinal articles of the 
church of England and I believe there has never 

T 



274 



Village itinerancy. 



occurred an instance of its itinerants having trespassed 
on a field diligently and wisely cultivated by the 
labours of others. Had its designs extended beyond 
" the neglected districts of our land," it would not have 
received the countenance and support of my liberal- 
minded relative, whom I have often heard make some 
of his severest remarks on the conduct of such as use 
every artifice to decoy to their places of worship the 
converts of faithful and successful ministers. From 
the active share taken by him in the business of the 
Village Itinerancy, it is evident that its members pro- 
fessed a spirit kindred with his own, in their attempts 
to ameliorate the destitute condition of thousands of 
our fellow-countrymen, who are living in all the igno- 
rance and depravity of heathens, for want of more 
pressing calls to the only source of wisdom, piety, and 
happiness. He declared that his sole design was, " to 
enrich the church by fresh trophies of grace," and, I 
may add, to bring forth captives from the dark strong- 
holds of Satan, into the glorious light and liberty of the 
gospel. 

Mr. Rowland Hill was constantly urging the duty 
of selecting preachers to go forth among those who 
were destitute of the means of grace, and of providing 
accommodation for worship in places not possessing 
this advantage. It was part of his principle, that all 
young converts should be set to work for God, in a 
manner suitable to their natural gifts or relative situa- 
tions. Some he recommended as teachers in Sunday 
schools, others as expositors of the plain truths of 
Scripture to the simple and ignorant, and those who 
enjoyed a ripeness of religious experience were advised 
to become visitors of the sick. There is employment 
in the vineyard, he always considered, for every de- 



Letter of Mr. Rowland Hill. 



275 



scription of labourer, but he strongly urged the neces- 
sity of duly weighing the nature of the department 
most suitable to individual circumstances. A young 
and respectable tradesman, remarkable for diligence in 
the Surry Chapel Sunday schools, consulted Mr. Hill 
on the propriety of becoming a minister, and received 
the following answer to his inquiries :— 

MY DEAR YOUNrr FRIEND, Wott07i, October. 

As the office of a minister seems to be be- 
yond all others the most useful, so I am not surprised 
that such as feel themselves devoted to God, are de- 
sirous to fill that office ; and though the grand work 
in those that may be called to fill that important trust, 
must be found in a real work of grace upon their own 
hearts, yet there are other qualifications absolutely 
needed, before they can prove themselves " workmen 
that need not be ashamed." There must be a measure 
of natural gifts as well as spiritual graces ; and though 
we may know how far we may possess the one, by a 
close examination of our hearts before God, the other, 
I should suppose, can only be discovered to us by a 
due and proper use of means. 

There is, what the Scripture calls an aptitude to 
teach — a quickness and readiness of thought, well re- 
gulated by the letter of the w^ord, and by that wisdom 
which is from above ; and for the want of this, many 
have entered into the ministry to prove a burden to 
themselves, and a dead weight to the churches they 
may be called to serve. Now this holy aptitude, in 
my opinion, can only be discovered by the practical 
exercise of such gifts, of which others are always bet- 
ter judges than we can be ourselves ; and such will be 
naturally called forth for the further exercise of them 

T 2 



216 



Letter of Mr. Roivland HilL 



by such as have felt the spiritual good of them to their 
hearts ; and then, if Providence sets before you such 
open doors as these, you may better judge how far 
you are called to the sacred office. As for all human 
erudition, however good in its place, yet, in itself, it 
is nothing, it is much worse than nothing. How 
many of our half-dead churches are contented to be 
filled with mere pulpit lumber of this sort, while the 
prosperity even of living churches is greatly impeded 
thereby ! In addition to this, what heart-burnings and 
animosities are the result, which too frequently termi- 
nate in painful divisions and separations, to the dis- 
grace of the sacred cause. 

In these free remarks, while I cannot entertain the 
most distant doubt respecting your integrity and up* 
Tightness before God, yet I have lived too long in the 
world not to know the need of such hints as these, 
and I am sure you will take them as they are really 
meant. 

Let me also drop a further hint, as respects your 
present situation in life. All tradesmen who, by their 
own honesty and integrity, can preserve for themselves 
an honourable independence, fill a creditable situation 
in life, and are not debarred from being occasionally 
useful in the church of Christ. You, at present, are 
most usefully engaged in our Sunday schools, and the 
gratuitous services of yourself and others are highly 
creditable and beneficial to the cause. While thus 
engaged, you may, by degrees, feel your way, how far 
the Lord may design you for more extended usefulness 
in the work, and this alone a future day can decide. 

And now for my last hint, till I shall [D. V.] again 
see you in town. A person who enters the ministry, 
and is obliged to be entirely dependent upon the 



Letter of Mr. Rowland Hill. 



277 



people for his support, unless he be of remarkable 
abilities, is frequently called to suffer severely from 
those who furnish him with his support ; and if you 
should throw up a profitable concern, you may suffer 
for it in a future day. While I would at all times 
wish to live dependent on God, yet it is a great privi- 
lege to live a little independently of the world. 

I shall be both thankful for your affliction, and 
thankful for your recovery, if it has proved a profit- 
able season for your soul. Sanctified afflictions are 
spiritual promotions : what a mercy to be better for 
the rod ! 

With cordial love to your family and all friends, 
believe me to be, 

Very sincerely yours, 

Rowland Hill. 

From this letter may be gathered the sentiments of 
its writer, with reference to the gifts required in 
the sacred office of preaching ; and it would be well 
if a more general regard were paid to the aptitude for 
teaching, by all persons engaging in this solemn duty. 
The rule Mr. Hill prescribed to himself, and exhorted 
others to follow, was — " while a soul within our 
reach is ignorant of a Saviour, we must endeavour 
to win it to Christ," — in which, however differing 
as to the best mode of effecting this object, all true 
Christians cannot fail heartily to concur. Means are, 
nevertheless, to be carefully considered, before we em- 
bark in so serious an undertaking, lest our zeal, un- 
tempered with wisdom and prudence, should carry us 
into the battle, like the mettle of a sightless war- 
horse, only to receive wounds, and retreat incapacitated 
for further exertions. Particular cases of apparent 



278 



Necessity of exertion at home. 



interest must sometimes be passed over, for the sake 
of securing a larger aggregate of usefulness ; and with 
this view all our calculations should be made. Still, 
on the contrary, will it be proper to inquire how far 
these are consistent with the positive command " to 
preach the gospel to every creature ; " and it appears 
to me to be a matter worthy of the earnest attention 
of the members of our church, how we may most 
effectually promote an ingathering of the forsaken out- 
casts of our community. Some plan could surely be 
devised, so that emissaries, acting in perfect confor- 
mity with established rules, might be commissioned 
to invite to Christ the thousands, in the precincts of 
our large towns, whose numbers and situation place 
them beyond the reach of the efficient exertions of an 
appointed minister. Our district visitors, and, I may 
say, the agents of our Prayer Book and Homily Society, 
have effected much good in this way ; but they have 
scarcely crossed the margin of a widely extended field, 
hitherto left as desert as the barren wilderness, and 
almost as unexplored. While we have carried the 
seeds of truth to the most distant quarters of the 
globe, and have cultivated the regions of our very 
antipodes, is it not a strange inconsistency to suffer 
any portion of the land in which we dwell, to remain 
unblessed with husbandmen, fit and able, under the 
divine guidance, to convert the moral barrenness of 
the immense waste before us into a scene of verdure, 
fruitfulness, and beauty ? 

In unison with Mr. Rowland Hill's expressed desire, 
to win every soul within his reach to Christ, his efforts 
were often directed to the seamen of Great Britain. 
He was one of the first promoters of a floating place 
of worship, in which the heroes of the deep might hear 



Seamen, Waterloo Bridge. 



279 



the gospel on the bosom of their favourite element. 
He loved preaching to sailors, and was once much 
encouraged by accidentally overhearing three or four 
of these brave fellows supplicating at the throne of 
grace, in the most touching accents, for a blessing on 
his labours. The seamen returned his kindness with 
the deepest regard ; and I remember once, an honest 
tar knocked us up at three o'clock in the morning, to 
say that he had taken " a- passage to the West by a 
five o'clock coach," but that he could not leave, with- 
out just having a peep at his dear Rowland Hill, and 
craving his blessing. 

One of Mr. Hill's favourite recreations was watching 
the progress of the erection of Waterloo-bridge. Many 
a walk have I taken there with him. The workmen 
knew him, and would look up and smile when they 
saw him coming, for he had generally some good- 
natured remark ready to accost them with. He was 
once near meeting with a serious accident there, from 
walking carelessly on the edge of a plank, but was 
saved by the prompt interposition of a person engaged 
in the works. As was the case with him, in every 
thing to which he turned his thoughts, he gathered 
from these visits illustrations for his preaching. I 
recollect his saying, in one of his sermons on the pre- 
sent state of the church and of the world, " If we look 
only at the confusion which exists around us, we shall 
see but little sign of the fulfilment of the great revealed 
purposes of God. But he does design to raise, from 
the apparently incongruous materials which are scat- 
tered upon the earth, a temple to his own glory, of 
which his people are to be the lively stones. What 
appears to us to be irregularity and disorder, will all 



280 Missionary Museum. Matthew Wilks. 

be made subservient to the plan of the great Architect. 
I went down yesterday to see the works at the new 
bridge ; all appears confusion ; but soon shall this con- 
fusion be cleared away, and a noble monument of art 
do honour to the contriver's genius. So it is with the 
aspect of the world ; we must not regard so much pre- 
sent appearances, as future prospects ; only let us be 
found working for God. Oh ! how the workmen 
laboured at the huge masses of stone, to fit them for 
their places ; so the Lord is at work, in polishing and 
framing for their places the living stones of his glorious 
building, that we may be made like unto Him who is 
himself the chief corner-stone, and be happy in his 
presence, in holiness for ever." 

Another of Mr. Hill's favourite places of resort was 
the museum of the London Missionary Society. I have 
often gone there with him, where we used to meet his 
old fellow-labourer in the same cause, Matthew Wilks, 
whose zeal was as fervent in missionary efforts as his 
own. Mr. Wilks would say, " These are the signs of 
the great work, and it does our old hearts good to see 
them. Well, how is your eye now, Mr. Hill, is it 
better ? " On Mr. Hill's replying that it was free from 
pain and irritability, but very dim, he remarked, with 
his own peculiar look and voice, " Well, if you cannot 
see you can preach. What a mercy — if you were 
quite blind, you could preach, eh .'—what a comfort to 
have it in the head, and feel it in the heart — that 
must be your consolation, and it is the only one." 
Matthew Wilks was an eccentric minister of the old 
school, but possessed a vigorous understanding, a 
benevolent heart, and a great depth of theological 
knowledge. When he died^ his loss was keenly felt 



Fruits of inhs'wnary zeal. 



281 



by Mr. Hill, who attended his funeral, and at the grave 
passed a well-merited eulogium on the many excel- 
lences of his character. 

Mr. Hill's missionary zeal did not effervesce and 
evaporate in a speech upon a platform, or the excite- 
ment of a sermon : it was carried home to his fireside, 
formed the frequent topic of his conversation, and the 
theme of fervent supplication at the family altar. 
After a meeting, where he had seen some convert to 
the gospel from the miseries of barbarism and idolatry, 
I have known him so filled with holy joy that he could 
converse on nothing else. Adverting to the appear- 
ance of the convert, he would remark, "Blessed be 
God for these first fruits — did you observe the gentle 
manners and the innocent smile of one that was, but a 
short time ago, ferocious, and perhaps, a cannibal ! O 
what a work is divine grace in the human soul ; im- 
parting to a savage all the decorum and delicacy of 
the most cultivated mind." 

When Prince RataafFe, from Madagascar, visited 
this country, and attended the anniversary of the Lon- 
don Missionary Society, Mr. Hill was completely over- 
powered by his feelings. The poor boys, too, sent here 
from the same island, were continually invited to his 
house, and treated by him with every species of kind- 
ness and attention. After they had been a short time 
in London, he invited Lord Gambler and Mr. Wilber- 
force to come and see them. Their manner towards 
the young strangers seemed in an instant to win their 
confidence, and it was a most truly interesting spectacle, 
to see these three benefactors of the human race 
rejoicing over those they hoped to rescue from the 
thraldom of ignorance, superstition, and idolatry. Mr. 
Hill often spoke of the pleasure he enjoyed on that 



282 Wilherforce. Inconsisteneies of professors. 

day, and never without some affectionate expression of 
his esteem for the abolisher of the slave trade, and the 
friend of every effort to promote the best interests of 
mankind. He sometimes mentioned the anecdote of 
the vessel that was hailed by the poor uncivilized in- 
habitants of a distant island with the inquiry, " How 
King George do ? — How Massa Wilherforce do ? " as 
one of the most touching compliments ever paid to 
this great philanthropist. 

It is a melancholy fact, that the inconsistency of 
professing Christians has often staggered the converted 
heathen, who have been brought to our shores as 
specimens of the happy effects of missionary labours. 
One of the poor Hottentots, who came over with 
Kitchener, said, in the presence of Mr. Hill, " Me tink 
all English real Christians before me come ; me 'fraid 
not now," — a severe rebuke from such a quarter, that 
should teach us the great importance of exhibiting, in 
our own example, the force of the precepts we incul- 
cate upon others. 

Once, perceiving Mr. Rowland Hill to be unusually 
pensive, and hearing him sigh, I ventured to say to 
him, "Sir, I hope nothing is the matter with you." 
" No, Sidney," he replied, " I was only thinking how 
weary I am of a great deal of what is called the reli^ 
gious world ! " In writing to a friend, who was much 
staggered by the conduct of some who had been sup- 
posed to be under the influence of religion, he remarks, 
"I am grieved, my dear sir, that you have seen so 
much among religious professors that is so contrary 
to their high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Real 
religion is still the same, let the professors of it be 
what they may." In the year 1818, when informed 
of the death of two individuals, whose lives had cast 



South Seas. Mr. HHPs present to Pomarr^. 283 



stumbling-blocks in the way of many, and had been 
very distressing to himself, Mr. Hill observes, in a let^ 

ter, " and so poor and are both gone. O 

what a mercy to be blest with a blameless and harmless 
conduct through life, that real religion may be a greater 
credit to us, than such poor worms can be to it, in the 
whole of our deportment through the world ! Happy 
they who are kept by that power which keeps so glo- 
riously. That we may live to God, may we live on 
God ; then shall we live with God to all eternity." 

In the letter from which the last quotation is taken 
Mr. Rowland Hill communicates to his correspondent 
the wonderful triumphs of the missionary cause in 
Otaheite. " Charming news from the South Seas. The 
next number of the magazine will be worth your read- 
ing. How is the Lord making those to be his people 
that were not his people. A large cargo of their gods 
is now on its voyage, as a present to the Missionary 
Society, and in others of the South Sea Islands, they 
seem preparing to treat their deities with the same 
contempt." The converted Pomarre and his subjects 
were often in the thoughts of this zealous friend of 
missions, and received from him some interesting tokens 
of his regard, amongst which was a clock with the fol- 
lowing lines inscribed on it — 

Master, behold me, here I stand, 
To tell the hours at thy command. 
What is thy will ? 'Tis my delight 
To serve thee both by day and night. 
Master, be wise, and learn from me 
To serve thy God as I serve thee. 

Aged as both Mr. and Mrs. Hill were, at the period 
to which I have just referred, they made the weight of 
years no excuse for repose or inactivity, but courted 



284) 



Affectmg changes hy death. 



rather than avoided every useful exertion. When 
engagements, multiplying around her husband, occu- 
pied his time and attention, Mrs. Hill would answer or 
arrange for him his daily accumulating pile of letters, 
and thus, in a considerable degree, relieve the anxiety 
of his mind. Their only source of grief seemed to be 
the loss by death of those who had so long and faith- 
fully accompanied them, in their protracted pilgrimage. 
Frequently when Mr. Rowland Hill has been seated in 
the pulpit, while the hymn was singing before the ser- 
mon, I have observed the slow and pensive turn of his 
head, from one part to another of the chapel, succeeded 
by an expression of sadness on his venerable counte- 
nance. His hearers, in general, knew not the cause of 
his embarrassed manner, but he would afterwards ex- 
plain it to those who dined at his table. " I could not 
preach this morning ; my eye glanced on the places so 
long occupied by my dear old friends, now filled by 
strangers. — Ah ! I must soon be gone myself ; Lord 
help me to serve him while I live." On Sunday, 
December 13th, 1818, Mrs. Hill says, in a letter to an 
acquaintance, " Mr. Hill preached both morning and 
evening, funeral sermons, for two members of Surry 
Chapel ; I trust each in glory." One of these was the 
mother of his friend Mr. Benjamin Neale ; and the 
following letter was written to the widow of that gen- 
tleman, on the death of her aged relative : — 

i\lY DEAR MADAM, Surry Chapel^ Monday noon. 

I had frequently called in St. Paul's Church- 
yard, to inquire after our dear friend, and the report 
was such as left me no hopes that she could long 
survive ; and you must naturally suppose that I had 
heard of the event before your [letter] was received. 



Letter to 'Mrs. B. Neale. 



285 



Alas ! almost all my dear friends of that household, 
that were such steady and honourable friends to the 
cause of God and humanity among us, are now no 
nnore. Such has been his sovereign will who doeth 
all things well. When the Lord visits by taking away, 
it certainly becomes us to grieve and to lament, but 
not to despond, while the residue of the Spirit is with 
him that can restore the loss. 

Though the task you impose upon me next Sunday 
morning is a painful one, yet it is a favourable circum- 
stance, that I am in no great danger of saying more 
than I should, respecting the excellences of our dear 
departed friend. 

She was but a very few iDonths older than myself. 
How soon must my departure be now at hand : and 
though my strength has been hitherto continued 
beyond expectation, yet O for grace and power that 
my few remaining days may be more than ever dedi- 
cated to [God's] glory. With our love to the Daltons, 
believe me to be, 

Yours very sincerely and affectionately, 

Mrs. B. Neale. ROWLAND HlLL. 

Just before the death of this pious and valued Chris- 
tian, Mr. Hill says of her, in a letter to the late 
Mr. Griffin, of Portsea, " Our dear old friend, 
Mrs. Neale, is nearly exhausted and gone. She is the 
last of one of the most kind and affectionate families 
that the indulgent Providence of God sent among us 
for our credit and support. How many of my friends 
have I been permitted to outlive ! How soon I am to 
follow them must be left to him who knows our 
appointed time." 

In the year 1819, just before his usual time of 



286 Accident to Mi\ Hill. Letter to Mr. Jones. 

quitting London for his residence in the country, 
Mr. Rowland Hill was walking in Surry Chapel, and 
not perceiving that a trap-door was left open in the 
floor, he fell through it, and severely injured his leg. 
Considering his age and the circumstances of his fall, 
it was a providential escape from far more serious 
consequences. He mentions to Mr. Jones, in the 
following terms, the derangement of all his plans by 
the unfortunate accident. "It is now just a fortnight 
since I have been called to sing of mercy and of judg- 
ment. Of mercy, that I had no broken bones through 
a dangerous fall ; of judgment, that I am still kept a 
prisoner at home, deprived of the privilege of working 
for my Master ; nor, from the tardy appearance of 
the healing of a wound on my leg, do I know when 
I shall be released. What pleases the Lord, often- 
times displeases us ; and yet we at all times ought to 
say, whatever is, is best. If we could but get more out 
of self, the hell of self, and live more in God, we shall 
live more to his glory." A short time after, he writes : — 

MY DEAR BROTHER JONES, June 3rd, 1819. 

I thought to have sent you another letter 
before now, respecting the state of my wounded leg ; 
but I have waited, that I might inform you precisely, 
when I should be permitted to take such a journey, 
under the pressure of such a wound, till I can wait no 
longer. Hitherto, I find the least exertion brings on 
an increased inflammation, which throws me back. I 
have only preached once for these six weeks, to a 
small congregation, on a Friday morning ; and though 
I sat all the time, I was supposed to be the worse for 
it. The wound, however, this day begins to look 
more favourable, and I should trust my confinement 



Sanctified affliction. 



287 



will not be long. I should hope, at furthest, another 
week or ten days from hence will give me some hopes 
of a release. I feel as much for you as I can for myself. 
I know you will soon want a release, and I should be 
sorry not to have a little of your company before you 
take your flight. Here I am quite useless : I wish to 
be doing, though it is but a little. O that we may be 
anxious to work while we can. The more v/e have to 
do for God, the more we shall feel the need of living 
near to God, as nothing can be well done for him, but 
what is done entirely by him. If all our works are 
not begun, continued, and ended in God, they are of 
nothing worth. 

^^^^"^^^^ 

Love to all. 

Yours affectionately, 

R. Hill. 

It has been well remarked, that it is a good sign 
when affliction draws us near to God, instead of driving 
us from him. This was strikingly the case with my 
eminently pious relative : the pressure of suffering 
never weighed him down ; it only tried and proved the 
true strength of the principles by which he was upheld. 
As soon as he felt a Father's rod, he acknowledged the 
chastisement as a correction of love, and endeavoured 
to improve by it. That which seemed in him, at 
times, like impatience, was only anxiety to be again at 
work, from which it was with the utmost difficulty he 
could be restrained. In one of the many letters kindly 
lent me by the correspondents of my revered guardian 
I found these useful remarks on the benefit of trials ; — 
" We are made up of sad, thoughtless, inattentive 
materials, liable to be allured with present objects, 



288 Holy patience. Rebuke of an Antinomian. 

more than we should be. In this carnal state, we are 
terribly apt to be carnally minded, and this generates 
death to the soul. To have a life hid with Christ in 
God, is a state infinitely beyond that which human 
nature can ever reach. He that created souls alone can 
re-create them, and enable us to live above ourselves 
and above the world, that we may be brought into a 
state of newness to God. For the accomplishment of 
this sacred purpose, we must have our afflictions on 
the earth. We all are born to have them as sinners, 
and, when born again, they are perpetually needed to 
bring us near to God : and as we are prone to perpetual 
backslidings and revoltings, a repetition of them is 
equally needed, to prevent us from getting wanton, 
careless, and secure. Holy patience is not the natural 
growth of the human heart, yet in that fiame of mind 
we can alone find our resting-place in a trying hour : 
—we must be still, that we may know the Lord our 
God." 

Nothing Vi^as more remarkable in Mr. Hill, than his 
keenness in discerning the varied peculiarities of human 
beings, and the accuracy with which he discriminated 
between different shades of character. To the humble 
Christian he was all tenderness and affection, but 
shewed little mercy to those given to hypocrisy or 
cant. He once rebuked an Antinomian who was 
addicted to drinking : the man asked him impertinently 
— " Now do you think, Mr. Hill, a glass of spirits will 
drive grace out of my heart ? " " No," he answered, 
"for there is none in it." When persons who had 
obtained pecuniary advantages, by methods scarcely 
consistent with the holy life of a Christian, spoke of 
them as providential, he used to observe — " Well, you 
may think it was providence, but say no more to me 



Mr. Hill 071 a missionary tour. 289 

about that." Writing to a friend, connected with a 
town in which there were many Antinomians and 
Socinians, Mr. Hill remarks — "What between the 
black frost of Antinomianism, and the white frost of 
Socinianism, no wonder that the growth of spiritual 
vegetation is so corrupt and starved. Nothing but 
redemption by the blood and righteousness of Christ, 
and sanctification by the power and Spirit of Christ, 
can give life to the dead, and make the wilderness to 
blossom as the rose." 

January, 1820, found Mr. Rowland Hill in London, 
quite recovered from the injury in his leg. Writing 
to Mr. O. P. Wathen, he says, in a letter dated the 
6th of that month — " Through the mercy of God, we 
both, considering what antiques we are, continue very 
well, and we should be abundantly better still, if blest 
with that spiritual health which can keep the soul alive 
to God." Mr. Hill used often to make preaching 
excursions in the spring, for the benefit of various 
religious societies. About this time he came into the 
neighbourhood of Cambridge, and hearing that he was 
to preach at Royston, a village about ten miles from 
the University, I went there to meet him. It wanted, 
when I arrived, little more than an hour, to the time 
fixed for the sermon ; the place of worship had long 
been filled with a dense crowd, and numbers were 
w^atching for him, on the road by which he was 
expected to enter the town. Presently, a chaise drove 
up at a rapid pace, containing Mr. Hill and his friend 
Mr. Burder, the former of whom, the instant he 
recognized me, desired the post-boy to stop, and I 
went with him to the house where he was to be set 
down. After a few minutes' conversation, he accepted 
an offer made him of a room to himself, till summoned 

u 



290 Mr. Hill 07i a missionary tour, ^ 

to the pulpit, and those who supposed his object was 
to arrange his ideas for the sermon, were surprised that 
he invited me to go with him. When we were alone, 
he inquired anxiously about the religious state of the 
University, and talked of various other matters, till it 
wanted only ten minutes to the time for calling him 
into the chapel, where Mr. Burder had begun the 
service. I said, " Sir, I shall most assuredly not hear 
you to-day, for it is impossible to get into the place, 
which is already overflowing, so please to tell me what 
text you are going to preach from." That is more 
than I know myself," he replied, and began turning 
over the leaves of an old Bible on the table. Before 
he had completed his search, somebody entered to 
inform him that it was time to go. "Sidney," said 
he, catch hold of the back of my gown, and we will 
squeeze in," — and a squeeze indeed we found it. 
When he was in the pulpit, I observed he still turned 
the leaves of the Bible ; but at length he stopped, to 
give out for his text the words of Isaiah xliii, 21 ; 
This people have I formed for myself; they shall 
shoiv forth my praise ; and I certainly never heard 
him preach better, on the necessity of evidencing the 
power of the grace of God in the heart, by a life of 
dedication to his glory. This was only one of the 
many times I perceived that he left the selection of his 
text to the very last moment. 

After labouring as usual in London and at Wotton, 
Mr. Rowland Hill made, in the autumn of 1820, a 
long preaching expedition ; during which he wrote the 
following characteristic letter to Mr. Jones: — 

MY DEAR BROTHER JONES, Manchester, August 22nd, 1820. 

By now I suppose you are again settled, 
after your Welch ramble, at Wotton : may the seed 



Letter to Mr. Jones. 



291 



sown meet with a divine increase! We do nothing; 
God must do every thing. Old as I am, I am well 
worked wherever I go. The congregations are every 
where astonishing ; sometimes, for want of room, I am 

obliged to turn out in the open air At 

times, I trust, the power of God is felt among us ; if 
we think we can do without him, we may depend upon 
it he will do nothing by us. He will, and he ought to 
have all the glory. I hate dry, doctrinal preaching, 
without warm, affectionate, and experimental applica- 
tions. When we feel what we are at, others will feel 
too ; but when our own sham feelings are substituted 
in the room of real ones, the people will soon detect 
us, while this false fire will not communicate any real 
warmth to the heart. It is poor work to attempt to 
move the mere passions of others, but as our own 
hearts are divinely influenced by that power which is 
from above. I fear you have felt much from the mis- 
conduct of some during your absence. You will be 
informed how we were constrained to act towards them. 
What wisdom, fidelity, and prudence, are necessary in 
the management of the Christian church ! 

I can, however, tell you of another event, which, if 
accomplished, may prove a great blessing to the neigh- 
bourhood. Mr. , Mr. 's son-in-law, has 

determined to wind up all his mercantile concerns, and 
be a resident in our neighbourhood ; and by what he 
says, the nearer he can be to us, the better he will like 
it. He means not to take a settled charge, but to give 
his unsettled aid, wherever it may be needed. I mention 
this, that we may be on the look out. He is much 
beloved by all who know him. 

It is my design to see Wotton again, with the 
Lord's leave, some time before the second Sabbath in 

u 2 



292 



Letter to Mr, Jones. 



September, in order to prepare for a missionary meet- 
ing in our town ; though, I fear, we may have some 
dry doings among us, through the stiffness of some 
who may have the settlement of that work. 

Will you tell John, the gardener, that he must take 
some opportunity to bring some loads of stone from 

the neighbourhood of Mr. 's mill, which is very 

hard aiid good. This must be broken very very 
small ; though, perhaps, the road had better not be 
relaid till nearer the winter season. Will you tell 

him, at the same time, also to gather the 

lavender as it gets ripe, and some of the ripest of the 
balm of Gilead. You must also give my love to all 
the people, requesting their prayers, that I may not 
be permitted to suffer spiritual decline in my declining 
days ; and may you, my dear brother, have that faith 
and love which the Holy Ghost can alone create in our 
hearts ; grow in grace exceedingly ; and, while you 
can slay your tens of thousands, and I my thousands 
only, go on and prosper [and], I trust, I shall heartily 
rejoice in your success. Never doubt but that I am 
Your affectionate brother, 

R. Hill. 

From Manchester, Mr. Rowland Hill went to pay a 
visit to his relations in Shropshire, by whom he was 
received with the utmost kindness and affection, and 
was invited to preach in some churches, in the neigh- 
bourhood of the family residence. Mrs. Hill notices 
this in a letter to Mr. Jones, in which she informs 
hirn, that they shall not return to Wot ton as soon as 
they expected, on account of the pressing invitation 
they had received to prolong their stay. She says — - 
"Mr. Hill preached at Stanton Church last evening. 



Letter to J. B: Wllsoti, Esq, 



293 



and to-day at the chapel, where the family attend. 
Next Sunday [he is to preach] in a church at Wel- 
lington. How can he ever bear," she adds, jocosely, 
" to preach at such a poor place as Wotton Taber- 
nacle again, after being such a churchman ! " Indeed, 
as has been before mentioned, nothing gave him such 
unfeigned delight as being offered a pulpit in the esta- 
blishment. It would, at any time, induce him to alter 
his unimportant aiTangements, and cause him to pro- 
long his stay, in whatever neighbourhood such an 
attraction occurred. 

It is well known, that numbers of poor people are 
kept away from the worship of God on the Sabbath, 
by their inability to make a decent appearance ; and the 
attention of Mr. Hill was drawn towards the best 
mode of supplying them with the requisite clothing. 
This he communicated in a letter to his truly-generous 
friend, Mr, John Broadley Wilson.^ 

MY DEAR SIR, JVottmy November I6th, 1820. 

Our good friends at Surry Chapel, and others, 
have a design of extending the plan of religious in- 
struction among the poor, by seeking after some of 
the lower classes, whose want of decent clothing pre- 
vents their attendance. It is therefore designed to lend 
them a sort of Sunday livery for that purpose, under 
a supposition, that by giving them a taste for profitable 
instruction, they may be roused from their degraded 
state. 

It is therefore in contemplation to convene a public 
meeting for that purpose, some time after the 28th of 
this month, while it is concluded the most eligible spot 

' This excellent man died, after a short illness, in the spring of the present year 
—1835. 



294 



Letter to a yoimg minister. 



for such a meeting would be the boys' school belonging 
to the British and Foreign School Society, Borough- 
road ; and you. being one of the committee belonging 
to that institution, are requested to forward the appli- 
cation. 

With most affectionate respects to yourself and Mrs. 
Wilson, believe me to be. 
My dear sir. 

Most sincerely and gratefully yours, 

Rowland Hill. 

I will conclude this chapter with two letters written 
by Mr. Hill, one to a very pious and amiable young 
minister, whose sickness, alluded to in it, terminated 
fatally f and the other, on Christian love, to his friend 
Mr. Wilson. 

, MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, 

A letter, received yesterday from Mrs. Neale, 
informs me of the painful situation of your health ; 
and I am grieved to hear that, at least for the present, 
you are obliged to leave your sphere of usefulness at 
Exeter, and to seek your native air for the recovery of 
your health. The Lord's ways are frequently in the 
deep. Let us still hope that the present dispensation 
is only designed to deepen your humility, to brighten 
your zeal, and enrich your experience in the divine 
life ; and that you will be better taught to teach, by 
being tutored in the furnace of affliction— the better to 
serve in the sacred cause in which you are engaged. 
Pure metals shine the brighter the harder they are 
rubbed. The Lord alone can prepare our hearts to 



" The person addressed in this letter was the son of the late Rev. John Griffin, of 
Portsea, a memoir of whom was written and published by his bereaved father. 



Letter to Mr. J. B. Wilson. 



295 



receive that splendour of light, whereby we are enabled 
to shine forth to his glory. If sharp trials are neces- 
sary for the accomplishment of this glorious end, what 
a mercy from God when he sends them ! Still, when 
such as are likely to be useful are cast aside, it appears 
like a judgment we ought to lament—" Help, Lord, 
for the godly man ceaseth." While it is a great 
mercy to live to be useful, yet it is our greatest curse, 
to be cumberers of the ground ; and when such cum- 
berers intrude themselves into the ministry of the 
Word, they prove the greatest curse to the living 
church of Christ. May you be deeply sensible, how 
much of the life and power of God is needed upon 
your soul, to make you an able minister of the New 
Testament, " Not of the letter, but of the Spirit, whose 
praise is not of man but of God." May your life be 
granted for this purpose, and for this alone. 

I am still, through mercy, willing to work as long 
as I can, and as hard as I can. It is a mercy to be 
" steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work 
of the Lord," and then the next word sounds like a 
gracious promise, our " labour shall not be in vain in 
the Lord." 

With very kind love to your father and to your new 
mother, who, I am told, is a very excellent woman, 
believe me to be. 

Your very affectionate 

Rowland Hill. 



TO J. B. WILSON, ESQ. 

MY DEAR SIR, Surry Chapel^ Saturday eve. 

Ten thousand thanks for all your affectionate 
attention, and for your affectionate letter, O, 'tis most 



296 



Letter to Mr. J, B. Wilson, 



pleasant to love one another with pure hearts fervently. 
Love is of God, for God is love ; and such as feel his 
lovely image cannot but love them who are thus made 
his representatives by bearing his image upon their 
hearts. To partake of his image is the beginning of 
glory. The summit of our happiness must be the per- 
fection of our holiness ; by this blessed grace we have 
the brightest evidence that we are born of God. Our 
most kind regards to yourself and Mrs. Wilson. If 
this was not my last day of continuing in town, the 
Sabbath excepted, I should write more to one I dearly 
love. 

Your affectionate 

R. Hill. 



297 



CHAPTER XIIL 

The society at Surry Chajjel. 

I HAVE already mentioned the importance attached 
by Mr. Rowland Hill to a species of improving inter- 
course, between himself and the communicants at 
Surry Chapel, called "Meeting the Society." His 
views upon this subject will be further gathered^ 
from the notice he takes of it in a letter to Mr. Jones^ 
who was about to supply his place there for a few 
Sundays. " I hope you will find meeting the society, 
on a Monday eve, pleasant to your mind. I gene- 
rally speak to all fresh communicants, first in private, 
after having received a sufficient account, as far as it 
can be obtained among such a wilderness of people, 
and next encourage them to relate their experience to 
their fellow-communicants. But, if diffidence forbids 
them, I speak for them, and tell before their faces 
what they have previously told me. I have often- 
times found that the most modest have proved 
amongst the best ; but it is difficult to act in London, 
as in the country, where people are most easily known. 
I always call upon one of the brethren to introduce 
that service with prayer, and sometimes request an- 
other to conclude. Poor is as dry as a stick. 

When strangers attend at Surry Chapel, such minis- 
ters as do not like our sort of church government 
make it more like a public preaching than a society 
meeting. This I do not like, but we cannot have 
every thing just as we like. When I am in town, J 
give them to understand that meeting is only for the 



298 



Letter to the author^ 1821. 



coininunicants. I drop these hints ; I wish you may 
improve upon the plan." 

An aged and experienced minister's views of the 
nature of his own office are always valuable, and, 
therefore, I feel assured a letter to me, when I was 
first ordained, will not be considered an unnecessary 
addition to what has been already given on the same 
subject. 

MY DEAR SIDNEY, Wottm, July 26th, 1821. 

I am ashamed I have not written to you 
since you have been Revd. I had been meditating 
upon a long letter to you, such as a primitive bishop 
should write to one just set off in the sacred work to 
which you have been called ; but when I cannot write 
as I should, I do not like to write at all. Still for a 
few words. No real good can be expected, even from 
the private Christian, where the ground- work of reli- 
gion is wanting- — Megeneration. As well may you 
pretend to know what were the real transactions of 
life before you were born, as to know any thing of 
real religion, which is nothing less than the life of 
God in the souls of men, till after you are born again. 
By that alone we feel sin to be hateful, and, as we feel 
against it, w^e shall be able to preach feelingly against 
it. This begets genuine repentance, the harbinger 
of all future good. The Lord J esus sent his harbinger 
John the Baptist, to urge this, his first message, home 
to the heart. A young minister, if the Lord designs 
to bless him, will begin with the law, charging the 
sinful violations of it home to the conscience, in a bold 
and fearless, but still in a tender and compassionate 
spirit. The law, not that neutralized modern stuff 
that some call morality, but that infinitely holy and 
pure law, which is the exact transcript of the image 



Letter to the author. 



299 



of God himself, before the sound of which every 
mouth must be stopped, " and all the world become 
guilty before God, for that all have sinned, ^nd come 
short of the glory of God." And, till sinners feel the 
justice of this law, and own their guilt as transgressors, 
though the gospel may be admitted in theory, yet 
it never can be admitted as the power of God to 
the salvation of the soul, or felt as such in its trans- 
forming influences, in making us new creatures in 
Christ Jesus. 

Till this divine influence be duly felt, every young 
minister, especially if he be of a captivating turn of 
mind, is in perpetual danger of being captivated and 
ensnared by the world. When this begins to take 
place, he will first attempt the impossibility of serving 
God and mammon at the same time. When he has 
proved the impracticability of such an effort, he will 
give himself up to the service of mammon altogether. 
If you wish to gain a character as a minister of the 
word of life, you must first lose it entirely in the 
esteem of the world, and then gain it, by your upright 
and holy zeal, by your complete deadness to the world, 
that you may give yourself wholly to the work of the 
ministry, and spend and be spent in the sacred cause. 
Half-way work is odious in every profession, but in 
the work of God most abominable. Such as honour 
Christ shall be honoured by him. You have sufficient 
knowledge of the gospel, to know that it is a glorious 
gospel, while the thin, meagre religion of the world 
is beneath contempt. 

Though you seem to have set sail under the auspices 
of a prosperous gale, yet storms and tempests may soon 

await you : and, when needed, the Lord will send them. 

* * * * * 



300 



Letter to the author. 



Satan cannot break his chain, and the bolder you are, 
if tempered with wisdom from above, the more timid 
will your enemies be. Mind this passage — go beyond 
it if you can — " Be you steadfast, unmoveable, always 
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you 
know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord." 
Mrs. N., now with us, has this day received a letter 
from your late tutor, Mr. N. It is surprising what a 
glorious change has passed upon his mind. O my 
dear youth, pray for a well grounded assurance, that a 
power as glorious has been, in very deed, communi- 
cated to your mind, as the only genuine evidence 
that you were inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost, to 
take upon you that most sacred office you have been 
called to fill ! O that you may be filled with all that 
high spirituality Mr. Neale now evidently and emi- 
nently possesses, with your own natural Miim^iion and 
vivacity of spirit. 

■y^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

But just room for 

Yours affigctionately, 

Rowland Hill. 

In a subsequent letter to me, on the same subject, 
he remarks, No eminent blessing attends such as do 
not labour to be blest ; while such as are favoured with 
a sound head, a warm heart, and a Bible creed, carry 
all before them." 

Mr. Rowland Hill's memoranda of engagements, in 
his interleaved Almanack of 18^1, are more numerous 
than ever, both as to causes supported by him, and 
places of preaching. He thought nothing of six or 
seven sermons a week, besides meeting his people and 
attending to the business of societies for benevolent or 



Mr. H'dVs missionary joiirney^ 1822. 301 

religious objects ; and, although he occasionally com- 
plained of languor, his spirits never failed him, nor did 
his mind appear in the slightest degree overworked. 
He seemed, however, to be impressed with perpetually 
increasing convictions as to the solemnity and im- 
portance of his sacred office. His words, in a letter, 
are, O for more of the Spirit to make us preach 
spiritually ! By the aid of our Bibles and good books, 
we may collect good materials together; but, unless 
the Lord himself sends down the celestial fire, there 
can be neither light nor warmth from the very best of 
these dead materials. Jesus, the Lord and giver of 
life, keeps all in his own hands, to keep our souls 
dependent on himself." Speaking of a young Baptist 
preacher, whose sermons were full of dry theology, 
with little or no unction, he called him — " A sprig of 
made-up divinity, from a cold water academy." 

The willingness of this unwearied servant of Christ 
to labour, in his old age, will be seen by the intimation 
given in the following extract from a letter, dated 
January 23rd, 1822, of his probable acquiescence in an 
arduous journey for the London Missionary Society : 
— " The Missionary Society is sinking for want of 
support ; they have astonishing openings before them, 
for which astonishing exertions must be made. Now, 
they tell me, no minister that travels to beg for them, 
puts them to less expense, and gets so much money for 
them, [as I do] when I can take a journey for them. 
And now you shall hear the plan they have designed 
for an old man in the 78th year of his age. I am to 
set off from hence directly after the Missionary Meet- 
ing, Monday, the 13th May, and then travel quite up 
as far as York, 200 miles from hence, taking Lincoln, 
Hull, and several other large towns, in my way thither, 



302 



Illness from over-exertion. 



and on my return." After some other observations, 
relative to the alteration this plan must make in his 
usual movements, he adds, Though, at my time of 
life, I should rather seek after rest than attempt such 
extraordinary labours, yet, may it be spoken with 
humility, it cannot be denied that these latter itinera- 
tions of my ministry have been attended with abundant 
indications of the power of God to the souls of men, 
and have proved times of general refreshment from the 
presence of the Lord." 

A return of inflammation in Mr. Hill's eye caused 
the postponement of this journey to the 10th of June, 
and, by his own memoranda, it appears that he preached 
every day from that time till the 11th of July. The 
congregations and collections were immense, but the 
undertaking was too much for his strength ; and daily 
preaching, in very hot weather, brought on a complaint 
which weakened and depressed him. At the end of a 
letter he notices this effect of such exertions in his own 
brief manner : O how hard I have been worked. 
Thousands attend field preaching. Frequently almost 
tired. Still I am upheld, though I was seriously ill." 

On his return to Wotton he gave an account of his 
illness and recovery in a letter to Mr. Wilson, who, 
with many others, felt the deepest concern lest his 
exertions should prove injurious to him. " I feel 
thankful before God for [an] additional proof of that 
love and esteem among all such as love the Lord Jesus 
in sincerity and truth. O that I may prove myself 
deserving of the love and esteem that so many of 
God's people, and some of the best of them, are so 
kind as to bestow upon me. The attack upon my 
constitution, while it lasted, was certainly very severe. 
The spasms were so excruciating, that had I not been 



His recovery. An aet of liberality. 303 

favoured with an attentive servant just at hand, I 
might have suffered much more severely than I did. 
The Lord had provided for me a skilful and attentive 
physician, who was interested in my recovery because 
he loved the truth ; and though at some distance from 
the town, it is amazing with what kind speed he came 
to my relief. Mr. Jackson can tell you the means 
made use of for my recovery, and how speedily I was 
relieved ; and though I necessarily felt the effects of so 
much pain and the loss of blood, yet beyond my ex- 
pectations, I was so far restored, as to be able, with 
very little interruption, to accomplish my itinerant 
labours till my arrival at this place, where I continue 
through mercy in perfect health, only that I feel the 
old man creeping upon me, though not faster than I 
have reason to expect. Under such hasty admonitions, 
what a mercy to be blest with [such] holy tranquillity 
and peace of mind, as to be enabled meekly to say thy 
will he done. Had I been taken, I should not have 
been foimd lingering and loitering as it respects my 
public work, yet what reason have I to blush with 
shame when I reflect how that work is done ! There 
is not a moment of my life in which I should not live 
in despair, if I was not assuredly persuaded that it is 
not what I do, but what has been done for me ; that is 
my only hope ; and that hope I humbly trust I found 
[in my late sickness] to be the anchor of my soul." 

This year Mr. Hill manifested his attachment to the 
establishment by an act of the most creditable liberality. 
A clergyman, whose religious views corresponded with 
his own, became curate at the church at Wotton, when 
he immediately ordered his chapel to be shut up in an 
afternoon, desired his congregation to go to church, 
and himself set them the example. 



304 



Eastern four. 



In the previous autumn he had made an eastern tour, 
for the benefit of the London Missionary Society, visit- 
ing Norwich, Yarmouth, and Bury St. Edmund's. He 
had not been in the latter place for nearly half a cen- 
tury, always refusing to go there, as if oppressed by 
the painful recollection of violent persecution from the 
world, and coolness in professors of religion, he had 
experienced fifty years before in that town. He now 
met with the kindest possible reception, but appeared 
under most solemn impressions. When he saw vehicles 
of all descriptions coming in, filled with those who 
were flocking to hear him, he exclaimed several times 
— " What shall I do, a poor sinful unworthy creature, 
how shall I preach to this people?" A gentleman re- 
marked — " I am surprised, sir, that you should be so 
much agitated ; I could never have supposed that you 
felt in this way;" to which Mr. Hill replied — " I 
always feel a great deal before I preach, but I am 
unusually agitated to-night." The place in which 
he was to preach could not contain nearly all who 
thronged for admission ; hundreds stood without the 
walls, and the crowd seemed to increase his excite- 
ment. A person present says — " He gave out his 
text, laying a peculiar emphasis on the first word. Ask 
qfme, and I will give thee the heathen for thine in^ 
heritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy 
possession : Ps« ii, 8. In the course of his sermon, he 
spoke most affectingly of the state and extent of the 
Redeemer's possession — the whole heathen world. The * 
ground of the Redeemer's plea — -in which he illustrated 
the connection between the dignity of his person and 
the merits^ of his death; and in the most striking manner 



' Mr. Hill generally chose the phrase, the atonement of Christ's death — 
Merits,''^ he said to me one day, " is commonly used, but it conyeys only a thin 



Bury St, Edmund* s. 



305 



he finally set forth the certainty of the fulfilment of 
the text, as the Father's promise and the Redeemer's 
plea. In the whole discourse there was an elevated 
and sublime range of ideas, and a simplicity and ma- 
jesty of language, which arrested the attention and 
astonished the minds of the whole audience. The part 
of the application, in which he appealed to his hearers 
on attending to the duty, and cultivating the spirit of 
prayer, in imitation of Christ, will never be forgotten." 
As the venerable preacher came down from the pulpit, 
he took Mr. Dewhirst, the worthy minister of the 
chapel, by the hand, and, bursting into tears, said — 
Good Mr. Dewhirst, O that I could be more useful to 
souls the little time I have to live ! " His prayer on 
this occasion was answered by the conversion of some, 
and the excitement of a more ardent devotion in others. 
So delighted were the people of Bury with Mr. Row- 
land Hill's sermon, that they pressed him, in 1822, 
to return to them once more, but he was unable 
to accept the invitation. In a letter to Mr. Dew- 
hirst on the subject, he says — " What a kind set of 
people you must have with you at Bury, to make so 
much of the poor defective services you had from me. 
How true it must be, that the excellency of the power 
is not of man, but from the Lord alone ; and the more 
we are enabled to depend on him, the more he will 
honour that dependence by a glorious manifestation of 
it to the souls of men ; and the more we watch the 
progress of that grace, the more we shall see how little 
the great Head of the Church regards those human dis- 
tinctions among the different churches of Christ, and 
the nearer shall we be united to each other for oir 

idea of reconciliation to God through tlie death of his Son — atonement (owce sepa- 
ratedTrom God hy sin, now at one a^a.m)^atonement is the word I like." 

X 



306 



Accident to Mr. Hill. 



mutual good. When the gospel comes not in word 
only, but in power, in the Holy Ghost, and in much 
assurance, that sets all right ; and then, with one heart 
and one mind, we can all glorify God as one. If a 
spirit of bigotry has set us snarling at each other, this 
powerful influence drives it all away: the blessed union 
created thereby makes hell tremble, while all hands are 
strengthened." 

Mr. Rowland Hill, after his labours in the country 
in 18^2, was just on the eve of departure to London, 
when he had the misfortune to be seriously bruised, 
and to break one of his ribs by an accident. He pre- 
vailed on Mr. Jones to go immediately and supply his 
place at Surry Chapel, till he should recover ; and on 
feeling himself a little better he wrote to him in the 
following terms : — 

MY DEAR BROTHER JONES, 

Soon after you left us, I felt myself more 
severely and universally injured than I at first sup- 
posed. The fractured rib is frequently the cause of 
much pain. The accumulation of phlegm occasionally 
creates a cough, [and] the pain I then feel is excessive. 
O for patience to prove the event. This is the first 
time I have attempted to use the pen, though my right 
arm and shoulder are so exceedingly shaken, that it is 
as much as I can accomplish to lift my arm to the table 
so as to hold my pen. In short, wherever I am placed, 
there I must continue, but as I borrow the strength of 
others to be removed from place to place, though I 
Sf to be a shade better since yesterday. I conceive 
lecessary to be thus particular, that future supplies 
ay be properly considered. When the calamity first 
xappened, I conceived I might be able just to creep 



Accident to Mr. Hill. 



307 



towards the pulpit, and deliver somewhat like an 
apology for a sermon. Under this impression, I ad- 
vised you to go to London; but as matters are, it might 
have been best had you continued on the spot. You 
know what a miserable shift we are, on such occasions, 
obliged to make. Mr. will be with us on Sab- 
bath morning (to-morrow) and in the eve ; and, 

on the Sabbath afterwards, we must contrive such 
another patch. As, therefore, the people in London 
may help themselves a little better than we can do at 
this place, the sooner you return the better. Still, it 
occurs to my mind, that if between this and a fortnight 
hence, I shovild be so far restored, as that I could 
preach two half sermons, and procure others to read 
and pray, such a service would be better accepted than 
what could be obtained from the generality of our 
supplies. Of this you shall have timely notice ; and 
after that I should remove slowly to town, and you 
would return to your winter post, where all will be 
most affectionately glad to see you. I am tired of 
writing. Love to all. 

Yours affectionately. 
Thy will he done. Rowland Hill. 

On all these occasions Mr. Hill's anxiety was more 
for the good and comfort of others than for himself. 
On hearing of his accident, I immediately begged that 
every information might be sent me as to the prospects 
and progress of his recovery, about which I naturally 
felt most deeply anxious. To a long and kind lm;ter 
from Mrs, Hill on the subject, he added a postse^iapt 
in these words — " Yes, through the mercy of God, I 
am abundantly better, though still, when in bed, I 
cannot turn, but as I am turned. O that I may be 

X 2 



308 



His recovery. 



able to spend the very, very few remainder of my days 
to his glory, by whom I have hitherto been kept. But 

you say nothing about yourself. 

* * * * 

When you come, I shall do my best to prove that I am 
Yours most affectionately, 

Rowland Hill. 

Mr. Hill recovered with astonishing rapidity, and 
commenced the year 1823, if we may judge from his 
notes of engagements, with more activity than ever. 
It was a rare occurrence indeed for him to name the 
day, while in London, which he could call his own. 
The more he had to do, the happier he appeared ; and, 
though increasing years brought with them a sense of 
diminished strength, his desire to work never decreased. 
This is shewn by his own written remark — Through 
the mercy of God, my will for labour is where it was, 
but my ability begins to fail. I look upon myself to 
have been most mercifully favoured through life, and 
wish to meet my declining days with holy calmness and 
resignation to my heavenly Father's will. May he in- 
crease spirituality where he denies strength, and bless 
me with a more abundant influence of his grace and 
spirit in my declining days." After a season of great 
activity in London, and what always seemed to renew 
his energies, an excellent missionary collection at Surry 
Chapel, amounting to £425, he went to Wotton, 
preaching, as was his custom, every evening except 
the Saturday, at places on his journey, which he usually 
made last the week. He travelled with his own horses 
by easy stages, and was looked for with the most 
anxious expectation wherever a sermon from him was 
announced. Nothing escaped him on the road, and his 



M)\ Hill in travelling, 309 

remarks were generally exceedingly pointed and enter- 
taining. I remember once being with him on a 
journey in the West of England, which he enlivened 
all the way by his animated observations ; at length we 
passed a chapel belonging to a sect in no great favour 
with him, on the front of which was a large board, 
with an inscription, indicating to what party it be- 
longed. Looking up quickly, he said — What's that?" 
and on my reading it, observed, with his drollest ex- 
pression of countenance — " They had better do like the 
old washerwomen, who put up over their doors — 
Manglmg done here.'" 

After the accustomed enjoyments of his lovely place 
in Gloucestershire, mingled with his usual quantity of 
labour, Mr. Rowland Hill proceeded in the autumn of 
1823, on a long and arduous missionary tour.^ He 
was in a very strong state of health, and went 
through his Herculean task with the most per- 
fect comfort to himself, and no small benefit to the 

^ I have thought it worth while to give, from his memoranda, the following 
arrangement for August and September, 1823, to shew what a plan of exertion my 
venerable relative had marked out for himself at 78 years of age, a period at which 
most old men naturally look for quiet, indulgence, and repose. 



August, 1823. 


18 Exeter 


5 South Petherton 


1 


19 Tiverton 


6 Pounsford — dinner 


2 


20 Barnstaple 


7 Sacrament Pounsford 


3 


21 Bideford 


and Taunton 




22 Oakhampton 




4 


23 Tavistock 


8 ^Vellington 


5 


24 Tavistock 


9 Bridgewater 


6 Trowbridge 




10 Shepton IVIallet 


7 Bruton 


25 Plymouth 


11 Homeward 


8 Sherborne 


26 Plymouth 


12 Bristol 


9 Weymouth 


27 Plymouth 


13 


10 Weymouth 


28 Ashburton 


14 Home (prob. 3 times) 




29 Totness 




11 Weymouth 


30 Kingsbridge 


15 Society 


12 Weymouth, Dorchester 31 Dartmouth 


16 Old Town 


13 Bridport 




17 Kings wood 


14 Sidmouth 


September^ 1823. 


18 Hawkesbury 


15 Exmouth 


1 Kingsbridge 


19 Newport 


16 Exeter 


2 Yeovil 


20 


17 Exeter 


3 Castle Gary 


21 Wotton 




4 Wincanton 





310 Lust journey to Scotland^ 1824. 

cause he espoused. On August SSrd, 1823, he entered 
on his 79th year, and kept his birthday, not with rest 
and festivity, but by a sermon at Tavistock ; desiring 
that the day of his own nativity should be the date of 
the new birth unto righteousness in others, till then 
dead in trespasses and sins. 

In the spring of 1824 he was found engaged, with 
the same self-denial and earnestness as ever, in the 
cause of religion. Mrs. Hill says, in a letter dated 
March l6th, "Mr. Hill is gone into the city on busi- 
ness, and from thence to Hackney to preach. In 
short, he has so much to do, that I am astonished his 
strength holds out ; but I desire to be thankful for 
the wonderful health he has." It was this year^ 
proposed to him to revisit Scotland in the summer, 
and he thus announced his acceptance of the invi- 
tation to a correspondent, " You will be surprised to 
hear that, old as I am, I have actually engaged to 
travel so far as Scotland. Though I fear I may have 
promised too much for my time of life ; yet I must 
look up to the strong for strength. I go directly 
from hence to Edinburgh by water." On the night of 
June 2, he went on board a steam vessel, which 
left the river Thames on the Wednesday morning, and 
arrived safe at Edinburgh on the Friday following. 
When about midway on his voyage, he was requested 
by two Scotch members of parliament to address the 
passengers, and readily assented to their proposal. 
The subject chosen w^as our Lord's sermon on the 
mount, on which he commented in a natural, easy, and 
impressive manner, for about three quarters of an hour. 
Though in his eightieth year, he stood the whole 
time, to the astonishment of his hearers, and the power 
which accompanied his words produced an effect upon 



Last journey to Scotland^ 1824. 



311 



all present of no ordinary nature. As soon as he 
had concluded, the whole assemhly of about sixty 
persons pressed forward to shake hands and thank 
him ; and it was evident that they had heard with 
serious attention a message of truth, delivered under 
a sense of its infinite importance, solemnized by the 
reflection that the aged lips from which it came must 
in a few years more be closed in the silence of death. 
He often mentioned this interesting event with the 
most pleasing recollections, and spoke in grateful terms 
of the many kind attentions shown him during the 
whole voyage. 

On reaching Edinburgh he was most hospitably 
welcomed at the house of the Rev. J. Aikman, near 
Heriot's Hospital, who very obligingly sent me the 
following account of his visit : — " I regret that I am 
able to say so little respecting the last visit of your 
late venerable and highly esteemed relative to this 
city, as his stay was so very short, scarcely completing 
a week. But this I can say with confidence, that his 
unexpected appearance amongst us, after an absence 
of twenty-five years, was hailed with much delight by 
Christians of all denominations, and especially by those 
who had attended his ministrations during his former 
visits to this country. On the morning of the only 
Sabbath he spent in Edinburgh, he preached to a 
crowded congregation in our chapel, of upwards of 
1,500 persons, many being prevented access from the 
multitude which thronged the doors, and for whom 
there was no accommodation. In the evening he 
preached to a still larger congregation in Dr. Peddie's 
(of the secession church) place of worship. He was 
listened to, on both occasions, with the greatest interest, 
and, considering the advanced age he had now attained, 



312 



Last journey to Scotland, 1824. 



his appearances, while highly creditable to his talents, 
were still more ilhistrative of that ardent zeal for the 
adorable Redeemer, and that fervent piety and love to 
the souls of men, by which the whole career of his 
long, laborious, and most eminently useful life has been 
so much distinguished. His friends here were fearful 
lest he might sustain injury by his pulpit and other 
exertions ; but such was the earnest desire he had to 
embrace every opportunity of promoting the interests 
of that great cause which had so long engaged all his 
energies, that he unhesitatingly engaged, if I mistake 
not, during every day he remained with us, to preach 
in different places of worship in the city. He preached 
in the Tabernacle, for his old friend, Mr. James Hal- 
dane, in the Albany-street Chapel, on the evening 
previously to his quitting us, in the large chapel of 
the secession church, near Br ough ton-place, to an over- 
flowing audience, In the whole of his sermons he 
was heard with the most respectful attention, and with 
all that affectionate regard which the knowledge of his 
honourable character, and his long, faithful, and dis- 
interested services in the best of causes, so justly in- 
spired. On reaching Glasgow, he was introduced 
shortly after his arrival, if I recollect right, to a pub- 
lic meeting of the friends of Christianity, assembled 
for the promotion of some one of those great and phi- 
lanthropic schemes for the spiritual benefit of our fel- 
low-men which so happily mark the character of the 
period in which our lot is cast ; and his appearance in 
the midst of them, while welcomed by the most cor- 
dial and joyous congratulations, and his paternal and 
affectionate address, gave an impulse to the meeting of 
no ordinary kind. His exertions in the week were of 
a similar character v/ith those by which his short 



Last journey to Scotland, 1824. 



313 



residence here was marked ; and while, in leaving us, 
we experienced a measure of that feeling which pre- 
vailed in the breasts of the Ephesian brethren when 
taking leave of Paul — * that they should see his face 
no more in the flesh,' we were yet soothed by the 
reflection, that the Lord in his adorable providence 
had permitted us once more to see and hear him, in 
whose former labours many of us had felt so deep an 
interest, and of which labours, and I can speak of what 
came under my own personal knowledge, there is fruit 
gathered many years since into the heavenly garner, 
and fruit still on earth, to be conveyed there in the 
due and appointed season." 

The Monday after his arrival in Edinburgh, Mr, 
Rowland Hill visited, with the greatest interest, the 
scenes of his past labours. On the Calton Hill he 
stood for a few minutes, in silent and pensive contem- 
plation of the spot whence, in former days, he had 
addressed assembled thousands on the momentous 
concerns of the eternal world ; and then adverted 
alternately to the magnificent landscape before him, and 
to the times in which, standing on that very soil, he 
had felt his spirit stirred within him, to point out to 
the careless and the ignorant the only road to the 
bright and everlasting glories of a heavenly existence. 
Mr. Hill went to Glasgow by the track-boat, embarking 
at Grangemouth, a small village in Stirlingshire, and 
his presence excited an intense interest in the people, 
who crowded to see him. He remained on deck nearly 
the whole time of the passage, enjoying without fatigue 
the beautiful scenery through which he passed. The 
inhabitants of Glasgow received him with enthusiasm, 
and he became the chief object of attraction during the 
bustle and excitement of a week's religious festival. 



314 



Liverpool. Returm to Wottofi. 



At Paisley he preached in the High Church, and pro- 
ceeded to Greenock, where he spent several days, that 
he might refresh himself by excursions on the lakes. 
On his departure, numbers followed him to the water's 
edge, to take a parting look and bid a long farewell to 
the aged minister, whose hoary hairs and furrowed 
cheeks foretold that he was quitting the shores of 
Scotland for ever. After a boisterous voyage, in a 
steam-vessel, he reached Liverpool at three in the 
morning ; he went to bed till eight o'clock, when he 
arose to breakfast, and was sufficiently recovered by 
the evening to address an overflowing congregation in 
the chapel of Dr. Raffles. It is no use trying to get 
in," said a man ; " they run over like peas from a 
bushel ;" and so they did in every place during this 
entire journey. The same sensation was excited at 
Manchester by Mr. Hill's staying to preach there on 
his way to Hawkstone, his birth-place, and to Hard- 
wick, the seat of Lord Hill. After a most kind recep- 
tion from his family, he returned to Wotton, delighted 
with his tour and the success of the collections, which 
amounted to nearly sixteen hundred pounds. On his 
arrival, Mrs. Hill wrote me word : — " All his friends 
here were pleased to see him look so well, and I doubt 
not but you will feel the same pleasure by the informa- 
tion you receive. Through mercy he was protected on 
his journey, though he had a terrible voyage on his 
return from Scotland. I hope, from all I hear, that his 
visit to the North will not be in vain. I understood 

from , who was there at the same time, that the 

respect shown him was very great, which you know is 
very pleasing to flesh and blood ; but what is much 
better, vast crowds attended his preaching, and from 
the immense multitude, we may hope some might be 
called from darkness to light, from sin to God." 



315 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Pastoral Character of Mr. Rowland Hill. 

Ample justice has been done, by the admirers of 
Mr. Rowland Hill, to the power and spirituality of 
his preaching, the splendour of which somewhat over- 
powered the gentler, but not less admirable light of 
his character, as a pastor and adviser of those benefitted 
by truths, faithfully and impressively declared from 
the pulpit. Some, indeed, have ventured to insinuate, 
that he was found wanting in the discharge of this 
essential part of ministerial duty : I shall therefore 
devote the following chapter to instances of Mr. Hill's 
private intercourse with those who sought counsel of 
him, in which he was an example truly worthy to be 
followed by all who have undertaken the solemn charge 
of " watching for souls, as men that must give an 
account." I am happily confirmed in my view of his 
vigilance over his hearers, by the opinion of others, 
who had abundant opportunities of observing it. One 
of these,^ an excellent and well-known dissenting mi- 
nister, kindly wrote to me on this subject, and I cannot 
do better than avail myself of his judicious testimony. 
In adverting to his acquaintance with Mr. Hill, he says, 
" There is nothing in life that I look back upon with 
more pleasure, than the neighbourly and friendly inter- 
course I was for a long series of years permitted to enjoy 
with that eminent servant of Jesus Christ. One or two 
points I should like to be noticed in his memoirs, which 

' The Rev. George Clayton. 



316 



Visits to his jJeople. 



happening to fall under my immediate observation, 
and perhaps not equally so under that of others, are 
deserving of a lasting record, as illustrative of his cha- 
racter, and as entitled to imitation. There are many 
who knew and admired him in the character of a 
preacke?% who possibly give him less credit than they 
ought in the character of a pastor. During the 
months he was in town, he not only filled the pulpit, 
but he ivatclied and tended the flock. Calling on him 
one morning at Surry Chapel house, seven or eight 
years ago,^ I found him attired for going abroad. He 
said he was going a round of pastoral visitation, and 
very courteously invited me to accompany him. Hav- 
ing an hour or two to spare, I readily complied. He 
first conducted me to the almshouses, and, passing 
from one apartment to another, he gave a word of 
exhortation and comfort to the old ladies; and with 
one of them, confined by illness, he offered up a prayer, 
very short, but admirable for its simplicity, spirituality, 
and adaptation. We then proceeded to some of the 
most wretched hovels, which abound in the back 
streets of that neighbourhood. Several of these were 
inhabited by pious poor. He spoke to them with 
tender sympathy, and the most lovely condescension. 
One or two he admonished for their slovenly neglect 
and want of cleanliness, reminding them that godliness 
should make people tidy and clean in their habits. 
With some he left money ; with some he offered 
prayer — to all he gave kind looks, kind words, and 
his blessing. Coming out of a room that was certainly 
very dirty, he exclaimed, ' We must endure all things 
for the salvation of souls.' After this, we entered the 



' It should be recollected that Mr. Rowland Hill wa§ then more than eighty 
years of age. 



Visits to his people. 



317 



habitations of others of his charge, moving in what 
is called a respectable sphere of life. Among these, 
some of whom were the principal tradespeople in 
Southwark, he dropped a word in season, comforting 
the afflicted, warning their minds against impatience 
and fretfulness, and exhorting to perseverance and 
prayer. It was truly edifying to observe how he 
changed his tone and manner, according to the require- 
ments of the case, and how truly ^ grace was poured 
into his lips' while he went from house to house, as 
^ the shepherd of his people.' " This is a most accurate 
description of Mr. Rowland Hill's mode of visiting his 
people, a duty which no person ever more wisely or 
faithfully discharged. He balanced admirably between 
the doing and overdoing' of this difficult part of a 
minister's work — between the inattention which the 
people regard as a neglect, and those too frequent and 
hasty calls which are little valued, if not often con- 
sidered intrusive. On these occasions too, he always 
went as a minister^ and in no other character, and was 
careful to avoid all conversation but that which was 
profitable. He strongly urged upon the poor the 
necessity of every possible adornment of the Christian 
character, particularly cleanliness: and used always to 
consider a slovenly person and a dirty house as an 
evidence that religion had effected no salutary change 
in the character. The admirable neatness of the 
inmates of his alms-houses at Wotton struck every 
one who visited them. The least symptom of untidi- 
ness was noticed by him in an instant with " Here, 
mistress, is a trifle for you to buy some soap and 
a scrub-brush — there is plenty of water to be had 
for nothing; good Mr. Whitefield used to say, ^ clean- 
liness is next to godliness.'" I recollect once going 



318 



Visits to the sick. 



with him to a cottage, where, amidst other symptoms 
of a want of cleanliness, he spied some dirty rabbits 
confined in a corner of the room, and as soon as his eye 
caught them, he said to the woman in a way it is 
impossible to describe, for it was his own and miique — 
" Mistress, I suppose you put those creatures there that 
one nasty smell may drive out another." 

The solemn faithfulness of Mr. Rowland Hill's con- 
versation with the sick was always in the accents of 
love; and his concluding prayer seldom left a tearless 
eye in the chamber of the dying. His manner of 
pointing out to the alarmed, the difference between 
the repentance of Jea?^ and love, was exceedingly 
clear, and often productive of the happiest effects. 
His attention also to the little comforts of the afflicted 
poor made them feel that he really had their interests 
at heart. I have seen him early in the summer search- 
ing his garden, with a basket in his hand, for the few 
ripe strawberries he could find, to carry them himself 
to some sufferer to whom they would prove a welcome 
refreshment; and when he offered this little present, 
it was with a most affectionate kindness of manner. 
I have before described the agitation under which 
Mr. Hill often laboured, when he left scenes of sickness 
and distress; and I think I can truly venture to affirm, 
that he sympathized most sincerely, on all occasions, 
with the trials of each individual who confided in him. 

Not only were his personal visits directed to the edi- 
fication of his people, but he frequently corresponded 
with many of them for the same laudable purpose. 
He wrote to a young gentleman, to whom his ministry 
had been made useful, in the following kind and encou- 
raging terms — "You, my dear young friend, should 
exceedingly magnify the grace of God, by which, I trust. 



Advice to converts. 



319 



you have been called so early in life, to the knowledge 
of himself, whom to know is life eternal, whom to serve 
is heaven upon earth. I am grieved at heart, that you 
have had too many stumbling-blocks set before you, in 
what is called the religious world; still real religion is 
the same; there would be no counterfeits, if there was 
not real gold. The grace of God converts the heart 
and regulates the life in time, and ultimately brings us 
to himself in eternity; and such, amidst too many false 
professors, are still to be found, who prove themselves 
to be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, and are 
enabled to shine as lights of the world." 

To the same friend, on receiving tidings which his 
words will explain, Mr. Hill wrote — " Your letter con- 
tains plenty of good news, and some of the best of it in 
a short compass. What a mercy that your union has 
been attended with such a blessing to others of the 

same family. Miss , you humbly trust, has been 

brought to a knowledge of the truth as it is in God our 
Saviour, and Mrs. begins to feel the like inclina- 
tion towards the things of God. The more we feel our 
hearts brought into sweet union with God, the more 
will our union with each other be attended with such 
consequences as are happy and blessed among ourselves. 
Peace and love from God, when shed abroad in the heart 
by the Holy Spirit from above, is sure to produce peace 
and love among ourselves. What a perpetual hell 
possesses the minds of those who are under the domi- 
nion of their corrupted passions ; and what sweet sere- 
nity, what perfect peace, do they enjoy whose minds 
are stayed on God. O that we may enter into that 
state of spiritual rest which sweetens every cross, and 
renders our sharpest trials among the richest of our 
blessings in disguise!" 



320 



Advice to converts. 



Mr. Hill was always a willing guide to those whom 
religion had involved in domestic trials, of which I 
shall give an instance in his advice to a young lady 
under the deepest impressions, but much opposed at 
home. " The question you ask, how far it is right to 
abstain from conversing on religion upon parental 
authority, I [will] answer to the best of my ability. 
It is a happiness for you, dear madam, that you have 
not a desire or wish to converse upon any religious 
subjects but such as are the subject matter of our devo- 
tions in the public liturgy; and to be prohibited from 
ever speaking about that which should be [our] present 
practice as well as [our] future hope, would be a 
strange prohibition indeed, and in direct violation of 
that express command, let your conversation he always 
to the use of edifying, that it may administer grace to 
the hearers. See also Deut. vi, 6 — 10: Mai. iii, 16, 17. 
Had you been unhappily led aside by Roman Catholics, 
by Socinians, or by any other sectarian sentiments, 
contrary to those sound doctrines taught by our Esta- 
blished Church, I should even then think it a hardship 
to impose a silence, while conscience, though in error, 
directs you to propagate what you conceive to be right. 
While at the same time [that] I might admire your 
upright zeal, I should do the utmost in my power to 
use no other weapons but those of sound arguments, to 
refute your errors, and that by the most persuasive 
mildness to win by love, as well as to convince by 
truth. Let it, therefore, be hoped, that when your 
parents have fully discovered you have not a wish to 
hint to any relative or friend, beyond what should be 
the daily practice of us all — a serious caution against 
such a conformity to the world, as must have a ten- 
dency to pollute the mind, without any sanctimonious 



Schisin, 321 

severity against others in matters that are indifferent, 
and that your faith is the common creed of all Chris- 
tians of the Protestant persuasion — when your parents 
have abundant evidence of this, they will feel their 
mistake, and find it their duty to permit you to live 
comfortably at home, and allow at least some variation 
of sentiments in you, which may not be altogether con- 
formable to their own. I trust it will prove an argu- 
ment greatly in your favour, that while you lo\e the 
good man of every denomination, yet it is not your 
design or wish to deviate from the Established Church, 
or to make proselytes on such a low design; but if you 
can give good advice to such as are bad, and direct 
them to the Saviour that he may change their hearts, 
I must say that no parental authority should prevent 
you from so good a work. If such are persecuted, it is 
for righteousness' sake, and then the Spirit of God and 
of glory shall rest upon them: 1 Pet. iv, 12! — 18." 

When asked his opinion upon the nature of schism, 
Mr. Rowland Hill replied, " The word schism is made 
frightful by misapplication. Our fellow subjects in 
Scotland are Presbyterians; should they not be allowed 
to be the same in England also, where we are Episco- 
palians? Why should I be prohibited from being an 
Episcopalian when there? Are we not to be per- 
mitted to choose our own church discipline without 
being branded with such an odious appellation ? A 
schismatic is a man of a turbulent bad spirit, to what- 
ever party, respecting things that are indifferent, he 
may belong; but if we allow that these little shades 
of difference may exist, we ought to love as brethren; 
and where Christian candour and love are found to 
reign, the odious sin of schism, according to its genuine 
interpretation, can never exist." 

Y 



322 



Advice. Fasting. 



A young Christian was so tried by opposition at 
home, as to be driven to inquire whether it might not 
be allowable to seek an opportunity of leaving the 
parental roof. Mr. Hill's reply to the question was, 
" I am truly sorry for your perplexity. To leave a 
parent's home I conceive is a step that would not 
be advisable but under very severe and oppressive 
circumstances indeed. That separation from the world 
which we conceive real Christianity inspires and de- 
mands, as it respects its sinful amusements and delights, 
may give considerable offence, and for a considerable 
time; but while we are directed by the grace of God 
which is in us not to be conformed to this world, yet, 
under the guidance of that good sense which true reli- 
gion naturally inspires, we shall be enabled to obviate 
the mistake, that we are not actuated by sour morose- 
ness, but by an obedient attention to what we conceive 
to be the will of God, [and to shew] that we know 
how to keep up the distinction between pious cheerful- 
ness and frothy levity, in our conversation in the world. 
It is this that will enable us to shew more cheerful 
obedience and affectionate attention, to such as have a 
natural authority over us; and it is to be hoped few 
will be found, in this liberal and enlightened age, who 
will not be won by such patient continuance in well 
doing." 

To an inquirer as to the duty of fastings he writes 
— " You ask me about the duty of fasting. This seems 
more as a duty upon solemn occasions, than that which 
is enjoined upon us individually, like other duties 
which can never cease to exist. The duties of prayer, 
repentance, faith, love, watchfulness, holy patience, 
resignation and submission to the holy will of God, 
and a variety of others of the same sort, should become 



Real religion. 



323 



the constant habit and practice of the mind; and if at 
any time private fasting may be our duty, yet still we 
are directed as much as possible not to appear to fast 
before men, that the duty may be performed with 
greater sincerity before God. I believe we are much 
more called to regular abstinence, and constant morti- 
fication of every evil habit and desire, than to those 
particular acts that may occasionally be enjoined." 

When advising a young Christian as to conduct 
before worldly parents, he observes — " Much prejudice 
is found to arise in the minds of many, through mere 
mistake respecting what religion really is. A prepos- 
terous or caricatured misconception frequently occu- 
pies the mind, through misrepresentation or want of 
proper information. It is our mercy, however, that 
the wisdom and prudence which real religion inspires 
are so well calculated to obviate these objections. It 
directs us to go to the Bible alone, that our creed and 
conduct may be regulated thereby ; while it is not less 
favourable to those who claim a relationship to the 
Established Church, [for] as she directs, so we believe. 
The awful truth of the depravity of the human race is 
too notorious to be denied, and while reason tells us 
that he alone can forgive us, against whom the offence 
has been committed, revelation makes known to us the 
way whereby alone we can be forgiven, through him 
that suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might 
bring us to God ; not that we may wantonly live in 
sin, but that we may most powerfully be saved from it. 
And while this most important doctrine of the renewal 
of the heart is made so much the subject of divine 
revelation, we find it not less the subject of our per- 
petual devotions in the Established Church. Can we 
conceive a higher strain of devotion than what we 

Y 2 



324 



Christian ckeerfuln ess . 



have in that prayer in the communion service — 
* Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration 
of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, 
and worthily magnify thy holy name ?' and further — 
' that we, being regenerate and made thy children by 
adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy 
Spirit?' It must be confessed that, if we live con- 
sistently with such devotions as these, we cannot live 
according to the course of this world, but we must live 
unto God. And here is our difficulty: a solemn 
cheerfulness is our privilege, while a sullen moroseness 
tends only to disgust. I trust your own good sense 
will direct you to this happy medium before your 
parents, while they are given to understand, by your 
increased affection and attention to them, that they 
may have full evidence that they cannot have a child 
that loves them better, because you love and fear the 
Lord." 

If ever he interfered in the concerns of families it 
was in the character of a peacemaker or benefactor, an 
instance of which I give in a quotation from a letter 
to an aged acquaintance who disapproved the matri- 
monial alliance of a near relative, for reasons chiefly of 

a pecuniary nature : " Certainly, , being one of a 

large family, cannot have that prospect of accumulated 
wealth which may fall to the lot of others, and though 
there may be uncertainties in trade which cannot be 
avoided, yet, you will be happy to hear with what 
industry and attention the young people fill up their 
situation in life, to the credit of themselves, and the 
satisfaction of all who know them ; while you have it 
in your power greatly to add to their happiness by 
giving them those smiles of your approbation they so 
well deserve. In short, if they should fail in getting 



Folly of forced matches. 



325 



rich, which is of no comparative consequence, they 
cannot fail in being happy, and of passing through life 
in a safe and honourable manner to themselves, and 
much to the satisfaction of all their friends ; and I 
have no doubt, by all that I can learn, that while 
many dashing young fools, intoxicated by a few hun- 
dreds in their pockets, soon bring themselves to 
beggary and ruin, you will by that union soon dis- 
cover that which shall prove to their permanent pro- 
sperity, and the real satisfaction of an aiFectionate 
parent's mind. If you should, therefore, wish for an 
interview with an old friend, I should hope you would 
grant me the honour to be a peacemaker. I am sure 
it will not be less creditable to yourself than gratifying 
to all who know you and yours. And after all, there 
is a period in life in which soberminded youths should 
be left to themselves, and to follow the feelings of their 
own minds, in which no parents and guardians have a 
right to interfere, especially as we have such repeated 
evidence before us how all such forced matches lay the 
foundation of complete misery through all the future 
stages of life. You and I, dear sir, are now very old, 
and in a very, very little time the world will be to us 
as though we had never known it, and nothing will or 
can tranquillize our minds in the latter days of our 
lives like the spirit of grace, peace, harmony, and love." 

The kind feeling, added to his natural benevolence, 
with which religion inspired Mr. Rowland Hill, was 
continually manifested in his correspondence. Of this 
we have a pleasing specimen, in a letter to a little girl, 
the daughter of his friend Mr. W athen. 

MY DEAR MISS WATHEN, 

How kind to correspond with such an old 
man, old enough to be your great grandfather. Should 



326 



Letter to Miss Wathen. 



I ever be ground young again, I shall certainly remem- 
ber your kind attention to me ; but as I cannot find 
out where the mill is to be found that grinds old 
people into young ones, I can only advise my young 
friend, Miss Wathen, to follow the excellent advice of 
her parents, whereby she will be directed to be wise 
and good ; but not without the Lord should bless her 
with his grace, whereby she alone can be enabled to 
live to his glory. With love to your most dear parents, 
believe me to be. 

Most affectionately yours, 

Rowland Hill. 

From these specimens of Mr. Rowland Hill's corres- 
pondence, it will be seen how vigilantly, affectionately, 
and wisely he discharged the office of a pastoral guide 
and adviser of his adherents. He was not without his 
failings as a m.an ; his peculiar course it would be vain, 
as it would be unwise, for any other individual to 
attempt to follow ; but as respects his character as a 
shepherd of the flock, the greatest honour we can pay 
his memory, is to imitate his watchfulness, prudence, 
and affectionate patience, towards all who sought the 
benefit of his counsel. 

Another admirable feature in the character of this 
truly valuable minister, was the discretion which he 
exercised in the distribution of his numerous charities. 
Indiscreet benevolence, however diffusive, confers no 
real benefit on society ; and it is as morally wrong to 
encourage imposture in the lower orders, as it is to 
refuse them the assistance their necessities require. 
To this Mr. Hill was perfectly alive ; and, besides the 
judicious visits of the members of the Surry Chapel 
Benevolent Society, he used every means in his power 
to Inqiiire into the wants of applicaiits before foe 



Charities of Mr» Rowlatid Hill. 



327 



relieved them ; and I can truly affirm, that I never yet 
saw a case of real distress turned away by him without 
some consolatory act of kindness. In the country, 
also, he endeavoured to suit the assistance he gave the 
poor to their peculiar circumstances, with which he 
was intimately acquainted, and devised all sorts of 
plans, in seasons of unusual suffering, to extend a 
continuance of the charity required, during the time it 
was most needed. It has been well observed to me, in 
a kind communication in reference to this work,^ " So 
many eccentric, ludicrous, and extravagant things have 
been circulated of Mr. Hill in relation to his charitable 
deeds, as though he were open to imposition from the 
frail benevolence of his heart, that it ought to be known 
that good sense, shrewd discernment, and sound expe- 
rience, were united in the exercise of that large philan- 
thropy, by which he was pre-eminently distinguished 
in life and death." To do justice to the memory of my 
beloved guardian, as respects his private intercourse 
with those who looked to him for guidance, and the 
wisdom and benevolence of his heart, has been my 
object in this brief chapter, from which, I trust, it has 
appeared that he was not allured by a flattering 
popularity into forgetfulness of the silent and unseen 
virtues of a life, both in public and private, dedicated 
to God. 



^ By the Rev. George Clayton. 



328 



CHAPTER XV, 

Danger and recovery of Mrs, HilL 

In December, 1824, Mrs. Hill had the courage, at 
her advanced age, to submit to a dangerous and pain- 
ful operation, which she bore with amazing fortitude 
and patience. Her recovery was rapid, even beyond 
the expectations of the eminent and skilful surgeons 
who attended her,^ and the effect produced on her 
mind was a delightful proof of the depth and reality 
of the religion she professed. When Mr. Jones wrote 
from Wotton, to express his anxiety and that of the 
people for her restoration, she added the following 
postscript to Mr. Hill's reply : — " I cannot let this go 
without trying to send you a line or two (it is my first 
attempt at letter-writing since my illness), to thank 
you for your very kind letter. The contents of it drew 
a pleasant tear from my eye, as having a hope your 
request would be heard on my behalf. I am afraid 
to say so, but I think, in some measure, I desire puri- 
fication of soul may be the blessing I may gain from the 
trial I have had. My mind has been calm during the 
confinement of a sick room ; and at the time of opera- 
tion, I trust I was enabled to look to God for his sup- 
port ; and I had a confidence that the prayers of the 
children of God would be heard, as I believe many felt 
and prayed for me." In a letter to her friend, Mrs. 
Edward Walker, her feelings under the severe trial are 
further expressed by Mrs. Hill : " I have been writing 



* Sir William Blizard and ^Ir, English, 



Danger and recovery of Mrs. Hill. 329 

to you several times in my own mind, but now I will 
try to bring it into effect, as I am persuaded you will 
be glad to receive a few lines from me. I must not 
write much, as I find neither my head nor arm can yet 
bear much use. Through the mercy of God I am as 
well, nay, better than could be expected ; but being of 
a nervous habit, I feel now, in that respect, from the 
shock of a severe operation. But O, what cause have 
I to be very thankful for the support I trust I was 
favoured with in a time of need, and I hope it is my 
desire (but we know not ourselves) that the affliction 
may not wear away without a real blessing to my soul. 
My five weeks' retirement has been a time of consider- 
ation and examination. I cannot look back on a well- 
spent life, but, on the contrary, I find much, very much, 
to mourn over ; yet I hope it has, in some measure, 
been a season of prayer and praise, and that I would 
not have been without the affliction ; but we are not 
good judges of ourselves while under the rod. We are 
deceitful creatures ; may the Lord make us sincere in 
every point of view. And now, my dear friend, accept 
my thanks for your kind anxiety about me ; friend- 
ship is soothing, as we pass through this vale of trouble 
and sorrow." 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Rowland Hill commenced every 
successive year of their lives with an increasingly ear- 
nest desire to be found in the service of God. Mr. Hill's 
prayer was, that he might work to the very last, and 
that he might see perpetual fruits of his exertions. 
" To preach and not to do good by it," he observed to 
a friend, "is one of the greatest trials I know; but 
the Lord's work can only be done by the Lord him- 
self." In the year 1825 he went through his usual 
routine in London, and took a journey into the West 



330 Socinians. Visit to Mrs. Hannah More. 

of England, actuated by the purest desire to be useful. 
He sometimes exclaimed, " Lord, help me to do a little 
more good before I die, and raise up young ministers, 
who shall work from the bottom of their hearts. These 
last are what I find it difficult to meet with." He was 
also fond of applying to himself a quotation from one 
of his own hymns : 

My dear Redeemer and my God, 
Take thou the purchase of thy blood | 
The price was paid that I might be 
A living sacrifice to thee. 

His never-failing devotion to the cause of religion 
was accompanied with the most genuine humility ; he 
felt^ to use his own expression, " that no success could 
be the result, without a divine influence from above, 
and that he had reason to blush that God could and 
did bless so feeble an instrument for such a glorious 
purpose." In one of his journies in 1825, he attacked 
the errors of Socinians in no very gentle terms, some 
of whom observed rather sneeringly, "Poor old gen- 
tleman, it is a pity he does not leave off." This came 
to his ears ; and after a very animated address on a 
public occasion, he suddenly said, in his own inimitable 
manner, after explaining the cause of the remark, " The 
poor old gentleman will never leave off^ till the power 
to refute errors and spread the truth leaves off him; so 
further kind advice on this subject will only be thrown 
away." 

While at Bristol this year he paid a visit to Mrs. 
Hannah More, and these two aged and devoted Chris- 
tians appear to have been highly delighted with each 
other. Mr. Hill used often to speak of his enjoyment 
of the few hours he spent at Barley Wood, and could 
not rest till he had sent his newly acquired friend some 



Present to Mrs, Ha7inah More. 



331 



token of his pleasing recollection how happily the time 
passed away in her charming society. The present 
he selected was as original as the donor. He had 
for some time been amusing himself in making 
pretty and instructive playthings for the children of 
his friends, in which he found a great resource when 
the increasing dimness of his sight, from repeated 
attacks of inflammation, prevented him from reading. 
These were boxes, covered with coloured paper, and 
containing, in partitions, the letters of the alphabet, 
from which improving sentences and texts of Scripture 
might be formed. In each box there were printed 
directions in easy verse to be learnt by the children, 
and a couplet in rhyme on every letter. In a morning 
before breakfast he was to be seen hard at work on 
his newly invented toys, cutting out the letters, which 
he had had printed on pasteboard for the purpose, and 
sorting them with the greatest apparent earnestness. 
This was the keepsake he selected for the lady of Bar- 
ley Wood, and he accompanied it with a letter and some 
tracts he had recently published, in one of which he 
introduces his worthy rustic character Thomas Steady. 
In the letter^ he indulged his humourous vein by imi- 
tating the style of Sternhold and Hopkins : 

With this my love doth come to you ; 
My love it is both sure and true ; 
And eke the same, likewise also. 
Unto your household it doth go. 

Mrs. More appears to have been highly delighted 
with the humility of the Christian veteran, as displayed 
in his baby manufactures ; and as she expressed her- 
self in playful commendation of the easy rhymes con- 

' Mr. Hill's letter, I find, is introduced in the Life of Mrs. Hannah More, 
vol. iv. p. 240". 



332 



Presents for children. 



tairied in the boxes, I think I may venture to insert 
here two of the shortest of them. The first is called — 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CHILDREN HOW TO PLAY WHILE THEY 
ARE TAUGHT TO READ, AND BE THE BETTER FOR IT. 

These boxes teach children their letters to tell ; 
Next, words that are easy they learn how to spell ; 
Then they put words together in their pretty play, 
And learn by these letters what things they should say. 

Next, to use proper stops, as also to spell, 
Each child must be taught, if he learns to read well ; 
While a set of nice figures will teach him to count. 
Number added to number to any amount. 

Thus, kindly instructed, we children may look. 
And thankfully read in God's holy book. 
How Jesus the Saviour, our Lord and our God, 
Came down to redeem us by shedding his blood. 

'Tis there they may read how his Spirit imparts, 
E'en to children, the power which cleanses their hearts, 
That saves from proud anger, that rules them by love, 
And renders them meet for his kingdom above. 

May that dear loving Spirit within us abide. 
Our guardian from sin, our protector, and guide, 
That fits us for glory, till we by his grace. 
Shall find in his heaven our sweet dwelling-place. 

Then again and again to our boxes we'll go, 

And find in the Scriptures what things we should know j 

That children in wisdom and grace may excel. 

And sing of His love who redeems us from hell. 

The next is headed — 

DIRECTIONS TO CHILDREN HOW TO CONDUCT AND FINISH 
THEIR PLAY BY PUTTING ALL THE LETTERS AND STOPS 
IN THEIR RIGHT PLACES. 

If a child that is careless his letters should lose, 
Or incautiously should he his letters abuse. 
He must cease from his play till each letter lost. 
Be restored to the boxes at his proper cost. 
He forfeits a penny till he shall again 
Such letters make good by the use of his pen. 

The amusement and pleasure afforded to Mrs. Hannah 
More by this characteristic communication, will be seen 
in her animated reply to Mr. Hill's letter. 



Letter of Mrs. Hannah More^ 



333 



MY DEAR SIR, Barley Wood, Nov. Uth, 1825. 

Though highly unworthy, in the moral sense 
of that word, yet in a lower sense I may say that 
I am not so unworthy as I appear to be, in not having 
sooner thanked you for your kind letter and interesting 
present. I have lately been much prevented from 
doing any thing, that would be so pleasant to me as 
writing to you, by a succession of petty cares and con- 
stant interruptions. These are the little foxes which 
devour the grapes. 

I admire the usefulness and humility of all your 
baby manufactures ; your carefully sorted alphabets 
are like Ajax making bows and arrows for little chil- 
dren. Happy would it have been for certain heroes, 
ancient and modern, who set the world in a flame, had 
their leisure been as innocently and usefully employed. 

I like your poetry even more than your prose. I 
mean no offence to that very respectable character, 
Mr. Thomas Steady, who has skilfully attacked a most 
important evil. But the penalty imposed on the loser 
of a letter, and the skilful division^ of the letters of the 
alphabet, is a novelty in the art of poetry which I sup- 
pose Horace omitted, that he might leave you the credit 
of the invention. 

But, to be serious, on a truly serious subject, I cor- 
dially agree with you in your horror and indignation 
against public-houses. Nor do I fall short of your 

This division was as follows : — 

A, B, C, D, in the first box must go, 

Ej F, G, and H, in the second below, 

I, J, K, and L, in the third box we trace, 

While M, N, O, P, in the fourth find a place ; 

Q, R, S, and T, in the fifth box appear, 

U, V, W, X, come close in the rear ; 

While the last box contains all the stops, and Y, Z, 

Thus, put up your letters, and all go to bed. 



334 



Letter of Mrs. Hannah More, 



abhorrence of Antinomianism ; but your ingenious 
analogy between these corruptions in the church and 
in the alehouse, is, to be sure, perfectly original, and 
put me in mind of an old saying of my friend 
Dr. Johnson, when sin was the object to be abhorred, 
that he loved a good hater. 

May that gracious Providence who has made you so 
powerful an instrument of good long preserve your 
valuable life; and, when you are called out of this 
world, may you enjoy the reward promised to " those 
who turn many to righteousness." 

I must repeat with my pen^ the earnest request 
I made you in person, that I may be remembered in 
your " fervent and availing prayer ; " be assured that 
you know no one that stands more in need of it than, 
my dear Sir, 

Your very obliged friend. 

And faithful servant, 

Hannah More. 

Nothing can be more gratifying than thus to see 
the playful and lively spirit of two such useful and 
admirable persons, whose cheerfulness was the result of 
a life spent in cultivating the truest spirit of genuine 
Christianity. 

In the spring of 1826, on arriving in town, I found 
Mr. Rowland Hill was preaching in Kent, and a few 
days after I reached his house, he returned, full of life 
and animation, from his journey. The same course of 
activity in London, and the same diligence in the coun- 
try, marked the progress of this venerable individual 
during the whole of the year. He made an autumnal 
journey into Devonshire, preaching daily; and in a 
letter dated Exmouth, August 25th, 1826, he observes 



Mr. Rowland Hill at eighty-two. 



335 



I have now entered the 83rd year of my life ; I 
ought to be much more ripe than I am. I wish, by a 
wise conduct, as long as strength lasts, to do good 
without doing harm. My course is nearly finished — 
O that I may finish it with joy !" 

In the beginning of January, 1827? Mrs. Hill wrote 
me word — " Mr. Hill is still able to preach twice on a 
Sunday, though he says, in the evening of the day, ' I 
am very tired ;' but he is thought the wonder of the 
age, to do what he does at eighty-twor One of the 
most remarkable things about him at this time was, 
that his voice did not fail, and that he was able to 
command the earnest attention of his immense con- 
gregation, and to speak so as to be heard by them all. 
His chief trial was a cough, which came on in the 
spring, but which, while it affected his comfort in the 
delivery of his sermons, was not considered at all detri- 
mental to his constitution, as he was relieved by con- 
siderable expectoration. At this advanced period of 
his life, Mr. Hill's mind seemed, instead of losing its 
powers, only to be more and more matured ; and his 
vivid, and, in former years, uncontrolled imagination, 
did not take less lofty flights, but gathered, in the wide 
range of its excursions, only heavenly fruits. The 
ludicrous was banished from his sermons, and his 
aspect and language wore all the solemn dignity of 
age ; his manner, too, was that of one who recollected, 
that he must soon himself realize the importance of 
the truths he had, for more than half a century, been 
charging home upon a thoughtless and a sinful world. 
Whenever I happened occasionally to hear him, I was 
greatly struck with the increasing richness and method 
of his sermons ; and on my remarking the latter to 
him, he said, "I used to ramble a little I know, but I 



336 Spirituality of his sermons. 

believe I do stick to my text in my old age." I never 
shall forget the power with which he preached, about 
this time, on the words / know that my Redeemer 
liveth, enlarging on the necessity of a personally felt 
and acknowledged interest in Christ. " The older I 
grow," he said, " the more I feel my need of the 
Saviour, and the only evidence I have of my interest in 
him, is the life-giving influence of a living Redeemer 
on my heart — we know that we are his^ hy the spirit 
which he hath given us. O fine expression ! — because 
I live, ye shall live also — if Jesus lives in your hearts 
by faith, then, and then only, can you say, / know that 
my Redeemer liveth. This language belongs only to 
those who are dead indeed unto sin, hut alive unto 
God through Jesus Christ, their living and life-giving 
Lord." 

To be useful, either directly or indirectly, was, 
during his whole life, the happy lot of Mr. Rowland 
Hill ; but about the time to which our attention has 
been called in this chapter, he was destined to be the 
means of good in a way he could never have antici- 
pated. Miss Sheppard, a young lady residing at the 
well known and beautiful place belonging to her family, 
called the Ridge, near Uley, Gloucestershire, offered to 
take his likeness, with the benevolent view of building 
an infant school, from the profits of the sale of a print 
to be engraved from her painting. In this object she 
succeeded, in a way equally creditable to her talents 
and her kind disposition. An interesting corres- 
pondence took place on the proposed design, and the 
letters of Mr. Hill have been very obligingly lent me 
for insertion in this work. The first is a note express- 
ing his opinion of the likeness. 



His likeness taken by Mis^ Sheppard. 



337 



DEAR MADAM, 

It certainly must be the universal opinion, 
that you have hit me off very correctly. As soon as 
it may be convenient to yourself, on Monday morning 
next, we shall be happy to see you. We, through the 
mercy of God, are returned in good health from our 
western tour. We hope you are all well at the Ridge. 

Yours sincerely, 

Wottony Monday evening. ROWLAND HiLL. 

Miss Sheppard, in order to secure more effectuariy 
the success of her plan, requested Mr. Hill to promote 
the sale of the engraving, to which he replied as 
follows : — 

MY DEAR MADAM, Lmdm, October 26th, 1826. 

To oblige kind friends is at all times a grate- 
ful task, but a difficulty is thrown in the way to know 
how to perform it, as it relates to your present request. 
Had you sat before a glass and taken your own likeness 
as completely as you have taken mine, I could have 
said more respecting an excellent female artist, than I 
can say when I have to sell a representation of myself. 
Perhaps, however, Mrs. Hill may, in a few instances, 
do what I cannot. But a further difficulty will be 
found among most of her expected customers : she will 
have to treat with those who have shallow pockets and 
short purses, and who generally complain of want of 
money for more important purposes, while the pressure 
of the times most grievously augments the complaint. 
However, something I hope we may be able to accom- 
plish, and if the print proves as good as the paintings I 
should hope the effort may be made with some little 
success. 

z 



338 



Mr. Roivland HilVs letters 



Mrs. Hill feels herself much obliged to Mrs. Shep- 
pard, for her kind attention in seeking out for a ser- 
vant for her. 

How different the servitude of those that wait upon 
each other, when compared to the servitude of those 
who wait upon the Lord. All his commands are for 
our own interest and good, and the more we serve him 
the better we like it. How different the service of the 
slaves of sin — how disgraceful their occupation, how 
badly paid ! With us it is good wages, good work, 
good food, good raiment ; while there is provided for 
all of them a building, a glorious building, not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens. 

With kind remembrances to all the family, believe 
me to be. 

Most sincerely yours. 

Miss Sheppard, ROWLAND HiLL. 

The Ridge, Uley, Gloucestershire. 

In this, and in two other letters on the same sub- 
ject, it will be seen that Mr. Hill never forgot to add, 
to his observations on the concerns of time, sentiments 
that might elevate the mind to objects of eternal 
interest. The next letter is a beautiful instance of 
this habit. 

MY DEAR MADAM, London, March 20th, 1827. 

I have not sufficient vanity to suppose, that 
the very correct and well-executed representation of 
my old pkh would have had such a run among some 
of the higher ranks, but out of admiration of the 
female artist, who can imitate life and mind after such 
an inimitable style. Though I have not sufficient 
vanity to hang up myself in my own house, yet I must 



to Miss SJieppard on her portrait of him. 33!) 

contrive somehow so to exhibit myself, that, if possible, 
I may pick up some customers for the accomplishment 
of your kind design. [Still] I cannot form for myself 
any sanguine hopes of considerable success, as those 
with whom I am called to labour are found to be 
among the poorer, or at least the middling classes of 
mankind, and these find it necessary to seek after cheap 
bargains, especially in the purchase of such things as 
are not among the more useful and necessary commo- 
dities of life. However, when the print is published, 

I shall make the trial. 

* * * # * * * 

Still, dear madam, if you can represent life, it is beyond 
your power to communicate it. Christ alone is the 
life, and a giver of a most glorious life to all those who 
are born from above. He not only correctly depicts 
his image upon the regenerate heart, but puts his own 
life upon every feature he creates within. This is a 
religion that never could have been contrived by the 
art of man, as it can only be accomplished by the 
power of God. All other evidences of the truth of 
Christianity seem to sink into nothing when compared 
to this — the inspiration of the living mind and soul of 
Christ by that faith which works by love, and makes 
us all one with him. Without this life, whatever our 
profession may be, we are still dead before him — dead 
in trespasses and sins. O what a brilliant passage is 
that — " Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ 
in God : when, therefore, Christ, who is our life, shall 
appear, we also shall appear with him in glory,'' Yes, 
it is Christ within us that is the hope of glory, com- 
municating the divinest realities to the heart, and is 
nothing less than an infusion of heaven itself, through 
all the faculties of the soul, and establishing that king- 

z % 



340 



Mr. Rowland HilVs letters 



dom there, which is righteousness, and peace, and joy- 
in the Holy Ghost. 

With very kind regards to all your large family, 
believe me to be 

Theirs and yours very sincerely, 

RovTLAND Hill. 

The last letter to Miss Sheppard, on the subject of 
the print, contains a beautiful allusion to the image of 
Christ on the soul of the believer. 

MY DEAR MADAM, Surry Chapel, May "Jth, 1827. 

I am quite offended at myself, for not having 
attended to your letter and Mr. Sheppard's before now ; 
but the truth is, I have been glad to make a short 
elopement from town, to get out of a perpetual bustle. 
And now I am returned, I find the bustle worse than 
ever ; while a variety of public meetings and institu- 
tions demand much more of my attention than my 
increasing lassitude, through age, will enable me to 
bestow upon them. 

During this last winter a print has been in circula- 
tion, which has met with so large a share of the public 
approbation, that I fear the print recently published 
by you will meet with a dull sale, at least in this 
metropolis. 

* ^ ^ * * ^ # * 

However, we must do our best, while my subscription 
to your infant school shall not be lessened ; though I 
find the more general preference given to the other 
print stands much in my way in my efforts to promote 
the sale of yours : and, unfortunately, that print stands 
exhibited for sale at a print shop nearly opposite the 
chapel. However, if we cannot do what we would. 



' to Miss Sheppard on her portrait of him, 341 

we must be contented to do what we can, while the 
same objection that exists in London may not be the 
case elsewhere. 

Above all things we should look for that correct 
pencil, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, that can 
depict, if I may so speak, with so much wisdom and 
power, the sacred image of Jesus Christ on the rege- 
nerate heart. By him alone the restoration of the 
Divine likeness, which is the beauty of holiness, can 
be restored to the heart, bringing with it the only evi- 
dence whereby we know that we are born from above, 
born of the incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth 
for ever. 

What a blessing, when such a divine spirit runs 
through the branches of a large family, inspiring us 
with that wisdom of holiness, that so powerfully and 
wisely regulates all our footsteps through life, and 
ultimately lands us safely and honourably in the king- 
dom of everlasting joy, there to see as we are seen, 
and know as we are known, and there to be eternally 
with the Lord. 

With kind regards to all the family, I remain. 
Yours very truly and sincerely, 

Rowland Hill. 

The praiseworthy exertions and talents of Miss 
Sheppard produced a sufficient profit, from the sale of 
the portrait of Mr. Hill, to enable her to lay the 
foundation-stone of a spacious room at Uley, in the 
autumn of 1827, which was opened in the spring of 
1828. The school consists of abovit one hundred and 
sixty infants and fifty girls ; the building is also used 
as a Sunday school for three hundred children. The 
art of painting has never been consecrated to a more 



342 Mr. Rowland HHPs letter to Mrs. Lloyd, 

truly Christian purpose ; and happy are they who pos- 
sess the will to devote, in like manner, to the glory 
of God, the gifts he has in his providence bestowed on 
them. 

Mr. Hill sent one of his portraits (I do not know 
which), as a present to his esteemed friend, Mrs. Lloyd, 
of Bronwydd, in Wales, with the following humorous 
letter, in the shape of a dialogue, written on the back 
of it. 

A Bro7iwydd Dialogue, with a soliloquy, 

Mrs, Lloyd {to her servant hringing in the tea urn,) 
—Why, Drew, what sort of an odd letter have you 
brought me up this afternoon ? 

Drew. — It is a very wide one, madam : I dare say 
it is a begging letter. 

Mrs, Lloyd {taking the letter,) — O no, it is not a 
begging case ; beggars can seldom get franks : but go 
and call Mrs. Williams, and tell her tea is ready. 

{Drew withdraws, Mrs, Lloyd opens the letter,) 

Her soliloquy, 
'Goodness ! if it is not a print of Mr. Hill, as like 
him as it can stare. But poor old soul, what vanity to 
send me his picture ! Well, well, I must forgive him ; 
perhaps his late illness may have given a little twist to 
his brains * * ^ * * I wonder who he could get 
to take it for him ; but as he has for a long time been 
reckoned a curious character, many people may have 
the curiosity to purchase it, so I suppose some hungry 
printseller wants to turn a penny by it. 

Enter Mrs, JVilliams, 
Mrs. Lloyd, — Madam, did you ever see any one 
like this ? You must not look at the name. 
Mrs, Williams, — Let me see, I can t recollect. 



Mr. Roivland Hilfs letter to Mrs. Lloyd. 343 

Mrs. Lloijd.— Not recollect, look again; think of 
some old odd minister. 

3Irs. Williams. — Bless me, if it is not Mr. Rowland 
Hill, and how like it is ! — only I think they have made 
him a little too broad about the shoulders. But where 
will you hang him, madam ? 

Mrs. JLloyd. — Why, there is the difficulty. I can't 
think of putting such a little bit of a pimping print in 
the best room, it will look so odd a contrast to the 
others. 

Mrs. Williams. — Suppose, madam, you were to hang 
him up in one of the closets belonging to the best 
bedchamber. 

Mrs. JLloyd. — I shall not like to hang the queer old 
creature so much out of my sight as all that. I should 
like now and then to have a peep at him, that I may 
be reminded of some of his comical speeches when I 
am low. 

Mrs. Williams. — Suppose, then, madam, you were 
to hang him up in the housekeeper's room. 
* Mrs. Lloyd. — A good thought, that is just the place 
for him ; there are several prints of old statesmen and 
warriors, and among the rest there is a smoke-dried 
worm-eaten print of some bishop. I think that frame 
will just do for it. He can't be affronted if he suc- 
ceeds a bishop. I'll ring for Mrs. Davis, and tell her 
to bring the frame. 

The bell is rung, the servant appears, but here the 
dialogue breaks off abruptly, for want of room on the 
paper and brains in the writer, who wishes thus to 
apologize for himself. — Dear madam, may you continue 
well in the best sense of the word. 

Yours, with the greatest affection and esteem, 

R. Hill, 



Jouriiey to Wales, 1827. 



Thus humourously and innocently did the playful 
mind of my beloved relative amuse itself even in old 
age. With regard to the honour of succeeding a 
bishop, he used often to say he never meant to take 
any preferment in the church but a bishopric : he did 
not think he could resist that. No one had a stronger 
veneration for the episcopal office, and, had his life been 
spared to have witnessed the undeserved aspersions 
cast upon our present venerable, enlightened, labo- 
rious, and learned bench, they would both have excited 
his grief and elicited the strongest expressions of his 
indignation. 

Though occasionally complainings " I begin to get 
old," Mr. Rowland Hill made arrangements, early in 
the year 1827, for a preaching ramble in South Wales. 
Under the impulse of the moment, he shook off the 
remembrance of his old age ; and, when planning his 
journey for this year, he said to a respectable Welsh 
minister, who was requested to reside in London some 
of the summer months—" Being a very young man, I 
will be one of your supplies during part of your ab- 
sence." Indeed, but for the judicious interference of 
Mrs. Hill, he would constantly have undertaken more 
than his physical powers would have allowed him to go 
through. The ardour of his mind was undiminished, 
and his zealous desire to win souls to Christ evidently 
increased as he approached the period when he trusted, 
through faith and patience, to meet his Redeemer in 
glory. When alluding to this hope, he said, " But if 
I would reign tvith Christ hereafter, he must reign in 
me here, and that without a rival." A rich vein of 
spirituality ran, as Mr. Hill advanced in years, through 
his general conversation, and he seemed daily to ripen 
for heaven, and to long, with unutterable earnestness, 



Journey to Wales, 1827. 



345 



for a deeper and deeper sense of the Lord's presence in 
his soul. His was an entire dedication to God, which 
became, under the divine blessing, the spring of almost 
unexampled usefulness, and was the secret of that 
attraction which drew around him cordial admirers of 
every denomination, forgetful, in contemplating the 
energy of one who knew nothing among them hut 
Christ, and him C7'ucified, of the minor differences 
which divide those who are passing as pilgrims through 
the wilderness to an eternal home of union and love. 

During the year 1827, though gradually yielding to 
some of the infirmities of old age which crept on him 
by degrees, Mr. Hill pursued a course of astonishing 
activity. He visited Brighton, and parts of Kent and 
Sussex, in the spring ; and, after the accustomed 
fatigues of London, went on his proposed preaching 
excursion in South Wales. There, inspired by scenes 
of nature's loveliness, and by the cordiality of those 
who surrounded him, he appeared to forget the weight 
of years, and the incumbrance of his aged frame. He 
both caught and imparted warmth wherever he went 
amongst that animated people, and generally returned 
from his visits to the principality refreshed both in body 
and mind. 

At the great age to which Mr. Hill had arrived, it 
was not at all a matter of surprise, that now and then, 
before he entered the pulpit, he should express a fear, 
lest increasing lassitude should cause him to preach 
with impaired force and effect ; but the wonder was, 
that as soon as he began to address the people, this 
apprehension was entirely forgotten. Somebody would, 
perhaps, say to him, " Well, sir, notwithstanding your 
complaint of weakness, do you know how long you 
preached this morning ?" — " Perhaps half an hour, or 



346 Affection of Mr. HilVs hearers, 

a little more."^ — " Why, sir, you were more than an 
hour in your sermon." He then used to look asto- 
nished, and say, " Well, I am sure I had not an idea 
of it — it was too long for me, and too long for the 
people- — but when I am once set a-going, I cannot stop; 
I must be shorter though." Sometimes, when con- 
scious that he had spoken at an unusual length, he 
said, " Time, and strength, too, forbid my adding more ; 
but O bear with me, while I speak to you of these 
things, for I shall not live much longer, and you 
will soon hear my voice no more." An allusion to his 
removal seldom failed to bring tears into the eyes of 
his people, who were constantly saying, when they 
looked on his hoary hairs and aged face, " The Lord 
spare him to us a few years more — -what shall we do 
when he is gone ?" For several years before his death 
he was often contemplating it as near at hand. In a 
letter to a friend, in the autumn of 1827? he says, " I 
am sorry to hear you complain of health : we must all 
have something to bring us to the grave. Before that 
time comes, O that we may be brought nearer to God ! 
No wonder that I, at my time of life, have admonitions 
in plenty, that the time of my departure is near at hand. 
O for grace to be ripe for glory !" 

The feeling which marked every successive year of 
Mr. Rowland Hill's decline is expressed in a couplet, 
written in the first leaf of his memoranda of engage- 
ments for 1828 : 

Dearest Saviour, let me give 
All I have and am to Thee. 

By reference to his almanack, it appears that in ac- 
cordance with this prayer, nearly every day was indeed 
consecrated to his Redeemer's service. Being entirely 
free from care and anxiety of a worldly nature, he 



Mr. John Broadley Wilson, 



347 



had nothing but the weakness arising from his great 
age in the way of his holy pursuits. Indeed, a special 
blessing seemed to rest upon all his temporal affairs, 
and upon his family ; and the affectionate attentions of 
Lord Hill, now resident in London as Commander of 
the Forces, added exceedingly to the comfort and hap- 
piness of the evening of his days. Time had also sup- 
plied, with new members equally dear to him, the 
places of those friends of his congregation whom he 
had seen pass away, and they seemed to vie with each 
other in respect for his character and attention to his 
comfort. Amongst these, as has already appeared in 
quotations from his letters, there was no one to whom 
he professed a more cordial attachment, than the well- 
known and generous Mr. Broadley Wilson, of Clapham, 
of whom he used to say — " I have but one thing to 
desire — that he may be kept out of heaven a good long 
time, he is so much wanted on earth." In a letter on 
business to this gentleman, dated Wotton, August 4th, 
1828, Mr. Hill thus assures him of his sincere and 
well merited friendship — " This, however, gives me an 
opportunity of expressing to you my sentiments of high 
regard and esteem, whose favour and attention are so 
highly regarded by me. How different are those 
feelings of affection which are created among those 
who are one in Christ, to those common ties of affection 
which are found among the people of the world, while 
only swayed by worldly motives between each other, to 
manifest their little love of that sort among themselves. 
O that more of this were manifested in the church of 
Christ at large, that the old proverb may be effectually 
revived — * see how these Christians love.' God is love^ 
and lo ve is the fiilfilliyig of the law. 

" A short time since I was invited to Cheltenham ; 



348 



Cheltenham. 



collections are wanted there a little more than formerly. 
The people were astonishingly attentive, and crowded 
the chapel. Mr. Close ^ is truly faithful, and does an 
abundance of good, while his unreserved and frank 
behaviour endears him to all who know him. I was 
astonished, when there, to see, in that place of dissipa- 
tion, the decent and orderly appearance which is exhi- 
bited on the Sabbath day; the churches, if not all 
other places, are crowded, while not a shop is open all 
the town over. One thing, however, was wanting ; 
you were not there, nor can I be here long. Can an 
old man, just eighty-four, wonder that his strength 
decays, and that I cannot do the things I yet would ; 
still I trust I feel the desire to do all I can, but how 
poorly done ! God he merciful to me a sinner J'' 

Sentiments such as are contained in this letter were 
the genuine feelings of Mr. HilFs mind, arising from 
true humility of heart before God, and a conscious- 
ness that the best of men must acknowledge them- 
selves to have been unprofitable servants. In his latter 
days this lowly sense of himself never destroyed his 
general cheerfulness before the world, which he not 
only enjoyed himself, but largely diffused ; imparting 
to others a portion of his buoyant and animated 
spirits. This caused him to be received with smiles 
wherever he appeared ; and when he attended the 
public meetings in London, he was instantly surrounded 
by a host of friends pressing forward to greet him, 
or to hand him from his carriage and assist him to 
the platform. On these days all seemed pleasure and 
enjoyment, save now and then to his worthy and honest 
coachman, who was occasionally gazed at by people 



^ The active and much respected perpetual curate of Cheltenham. 



Fidelity of Mr. HilVs servants. 



340 



whispering — " Look, look, there is Rowland Hill's 
carriage, and that is the highwayman he made his 
servant." When told of this, his master used to laugh 
and say — " What swallows people must have, to credit 
such stories ! " The truth was, he was singularly for- 
tunate in having the comfort, in his latter years, of 
attached, faithful, and upright servants, who seemed to 
regard his interests as though they were their own. 



350 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Prophecy. 

I HAVE before stated, that during the whole of his 
long and active life Mr. Rowland Hill never altered 
his views of doctrine in any essential particular. It 
was therefore to be expected that, in common with the 
majority of sound and experienced divines, he should 
look with serious apprehension on the crude specula- 
tions, wild theories, and visionary interpretations of 
prophecy which a few years ago glared forth suddenly 
on the Christian world, and seemed almost to extin- 
guish for a time the gentler effulgence of long-received 
truth. Too many appeared to forget that the Bible is 
not only a guide to man, but the sacred and myste- 
rious book of God; and that while the light to lead 
believers is diffused, like the beams of a sun, over the 
entire surface of the new creation, Jehovah's unap- 
proachable eternal throne is shrouded by clouds and 
darkness, indicating his presence, but impenetrable by 
mortal eye. When it pleases the incomprehensible 
Author of truth to unravel his own enigmas, the divine 
prescience is acknowledged and adored: but it is the 
province of Him who gathereth the darkness visible 
around himself, to chase away its shades, and to open 
at his own time, and in his own way, the seals of pro- 
phecy. Wisely indeed hath the Father kept the times 
and the seasons in his own power; but to show the 
omniscience of infinity he has registered the divine 
purposes in words unintelligible, till explained by their 
accomplishment, when it is clearly made manifest, 



Prophecy. 



351 



that all the complicated movements of time have been 
regulated by the fore-knowledge and wisdom of God, 
to exhibit which he has recorded them in the written 
volume of his unfathomable decrees. Every riddle of 
earthly invention may be successfully investigated by 
the ingenuity of man; but God alone can solve the 
dark problems of his all-wise designs, the obscurity 
of which, till fully made known, and plainness when 
perfectly disclosed, prove at once the boundlessness of 
divine, and the finiteness of human intelligence. This 
view of the contents of the sacred pages seems to me 
to convey to the mind an indelible conviction of the 
impossihility^ that they could have been the invention 
of a creature, and ought to have its due weight with 
those who do not yet know, by the unction of the Holy 
One, the truth of the deep things of God, and who have 
no witness in themselves that they have Christ, the sum 
and substance of the Scriptures, within them, as the 
hope of glory. 

I might also observe, that many of the later produc- 
tions on prophecy have not even the charm of novelty 
to recommend them ; nor is it at all a new device of the 
author of error, to attempt to draw us away from the 
cross of Christ, by splendid anticipations of the speedy 
visible erection of his throne on earth. The dangers 
with which such speculations were fraught presented 
themselves at a glance to the mind of Mr. Rowland 
Hill, and I trust the remarks of so aged, experienced, 
and consistent a Christian minister, will be received 
with attention, and become useful to many who have 
been too prone to form or adopt sudden and mistaken 
opinions. He wrote me a long letter on the subject, in 
which he says, " all divine truths,^ among such as are 

^ He meant of course such as are really necessary to salvation. 



352 



Remarks of Mr. Hill. 



led by the Spirit of truth, are at once instinctively 
admitted ivithout controversy : but yet such as suppose 
they take the Bible for their guide, are too frequently 
misguided by their own imaginations. There is a deep 
and safe passage between Scylla and Charyhdis^ and 
none but rash and wanton seamen are in danger while 
they pass. Mr. Ward, of Iver,^ has pleased me hugely, 
by erecting a needed light-house for some of the present 
day. They who presume to prophesy upon prophecy, 
have, in my humble opinion, ventured upon very dan- 
gerous ground. It appears to me most evident, that 
prophecy is not to be fully understood till after its 
accomplishment. How mysterious were all those pro- 
phecies respecting the kingdom and coming of our Lord, 
and even to the disciples themselves, till after the day 
of Pentecost; and afterwards how plain and lucid are 
they made to appear. But some fertile imaginations 
think they have discovered not only when the millennial 
glories are to appear, but seem to have depicted upon 
their imaginations all the pomp and visible splendour 
of the personal coming of the Lord Jesus upon the 
earth; and in my opinion also, [in a manner] ill suited 
to that spiritual reign, which some spiritual minds 
would rather wish to expect. 

" It is my opinion that Mr. Ward's paper ^ contains 
such wise and needed remarks in the present day, as 
may well deserve our most serious consideration. Is 

it true that a man so lovely as , and in other 

respects so wise and good, is among the number of 
those who are in the pursuit of such hazardous 
speculations? [This is not to be] wondered at in one 
possessed of such a wild and staring imagination as 

2 This most devoted clergyman died suddenly in the spring of the present year 
(1835) when returning from a visit to a sick parishioner. 

^ His Annual Address to his Parishioners, printed and circulated amongst them. 



1828. Bath. Mr. Jay. 



353 



seems to envelope the mind of , or the whimsical 

mind of young ; but that others of a more solid 

understanding- should prefer to have such windmills 
whisking about their heads, is strange indeed. If I 
had not conceived that there might be a dangerous 
tendency in these speculations, I should feel less con- 
cerned; but it is to be feared, after they have been 
misguided in their speculations and calculations on 
revelation, they may give up revelation altogether, 
We cannot sink too low in humility, nor yet rise too 
high in heavenly-mindedness, but we may soon be lost 
in the wilderness of needless speculations. Such as are 
sober-minded will keep within their depth; and when 
the Lord directs us to launch forth, we may do it with 
safety. If we are wise according as it is written, we 
shall be profitably wise; but if we want to be wise 
beyond what is written, we shall smart for our folly." 

The year 1828 passed away without any particular 
event affecting my aged relative. In the autumn, 
Mrs. Hill said of him, in a letter to me, " He is just 
g'one to Bath, to preach for one Sunday; from thence 
he will return here (Wotton), and visit Bristol for 
three Sundays, and return to town after the second 
Sunday in November. He appears as well in health 
as usual, particularly while preaching." At Bath, he 
usually preached in the chapel of his friend Mr. J ay, an 
individual whose piety, preaching abilities, and reli- 
gious writings, are well known to the public. He for 
many years filled the place of Mr. Hill, at Surry Chapel, 
during part of the time of his absence, much to the 
satisfaction of the people who attended him. With 
minds very differently constituted, and of altogether 
opposite habits, these two devoted ministers sustained 
a long friendship in the most perfect harmony, con- 



354 



Cheltenham. 



strained towards each other by the common love of 
their Saviour. Mr. Hill, when speaking of the easy- 
flow of Mr. Jay's well-arranged discourses, used to say, 
" he blows the silver trumpet," and frequently com- 
mended his ever increasing spirituality in preaching, 
and the unspotted consistency of his life. 

Mr. Rowland Hill, during his absence from London 
this year, spent four Sundays at Cheltenham, where 
prodigious crowds thronged the place in which he 
preached. It was remarked that he had never been 
heard to declare the gospel of salvation with greater 
solemnity and power, than on these occasions. His 
sermons were enriched with all the maturity of age, 
combined with the vigour of middle life, to which was 
added the affecting consideration, that he should pro- 
bably never again proclaim the tidings of redeeming 
love in that place of fashionable resort. He said in 
his droll way, " I am going to Cheltenham ; I will try 
and be ujoon my P's and Q's ; " and indeed he did, by 
all accounts, seem carefully to watch and weigh every 
expression that fell from his lips. He came home much 
refreshed by his visit there, and full of commendation 
of the zeal and activity of the clergy whose labours he 
had witnessed. He said to me, I love to go to church 
at Cheltenham, and I went whenever I could, all the 
while I was there." His often repeated prayer at this 
time was — " O that we may feel more of the divine life 
in our own souls when preaching the word of life to 
others." He remarked also in a letter to me — " No- 
thing can be effectually done in the ministration of the 
word of life, but by the Holy Spirit. While some 
explain away this glorious truth to mean nothing, or 
next to nothing, and others caricature the same by 
mad and enthusiastic reveries, it is still nothing less 



ReligioiL a reality. 



355 



than the wisdom which is from above, which converts 
fools because of transgression, and makes them wise for 
their everlasting good." " Preaching," he frequently 
observed, " is poor dead work, unless we are under the 
life-giving influence of the Holy Ghost — O to feel the 
power — the life of religion — it is not an imaginary 
thing — it is a divine reality." " A Christian," he said 
one day, after sitting for some time absorbed in reflec- 
tion, " is one (O what a mystery) who has God the 
Holy Spirit in his soul — a temple of the living God — 
cleanse me, O Lord, that thou mayest dwell in my 
heart. What slight conceptions have those of the sub- 
lime and glorious work of divine grace, who fritter 
religion away into a little scrap of morality." Now 
and then, after a long silence, he exclaimed, " My peti- 
tion is — Lord, teach me to hate sin more and more;" 
and I remember once in a sermon, he raised his voice, 
and in a most emphatic and dignified manner asked the 
congregation, " What say you to this prayer — Lord^ 
let us rather die than sin!'" 

In a letter to me, dated January 12th, ISSO? after 
kindly observing — " You talked of a journey in the 
spring, and that then you should again see London, 
which gives us a hope that we shall then again see you 
and yours," he adds, " Considering that we are both 
such very old pilgrims, almost at our journey's end, we 
ought to be very thankful we are, as we are, continued 
in health. O to bring forth fruit in old age!" His 
frame of mind at this time seemed peculiarly peaceful 
and happy, and he wrote in his memorandum book, as 
one rejoicing in this blessing — 

Hail ! lovely Peace, with balmy wings, 
'Tis the sweet boon the Spirit brings. 

I recollect too his frequently saying — " What a glo- 

2 A 2 



356 1829. Visit to Mr. Hill, at Wotton. 

rious promise — The peace of God, which passeth all 
understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds 
through Christ Jesus'' The spring of this year was 
marked by no particular incident in the career of 
Mr. Rowland Hill, and he went to Wotton as usual, 
after the period of the meetings in London. In August 
I paid him a visit in Gloucestershire. On the arrival 
of Mrs. Sidney and myself at Wotton, we found him 
from home, but Mrs. Hill expected him in a few days, 
from a journey he had taken into Devonshire. At 
Devonport he had been followed by an immense 
throng of hearers, who were impressed with a mourn- 
ful foreboding that it would be his last visit. His 
residence there was made very agreeable to him, by 
the great kindness and attention of Lord and Lady 
Northesk, as well as by the civilities of all with whom 
he came in contact, and he returned home with many 
pleasing recollections of his tour. As soon as his 
voice was heard in the house, kindly asking after his 
people, Mrs. Hill said — " Now you shall take him by 
surprise ' — and I never shall forget the kindness, the 
cordiality, the animation of his welcome. We in- 
quired about his journey, and he spoke of the civilities 
he had received, the numbers who had heard him, and 
the support he had met with in his labours, but added 
■ — " When some people came and told me, with tears 
of joy, that they were awakened under my preaching 
many years ago, when I was in those parts, it was 
almost more than the old man could bear.'* He gene- 
rally, when his feelings overcame him, relieved his 
mind by changing the subject, and, turning to me, he 
said — " Sidney, I hope you are going to preach in the 
church here to-morrow." I answered, that the clergy- 
man had invited me to do so in the afternoon, and 



Bivth-day aermon. 



357 



tliat I was to read prayers in the morning. " That's 
right," he replied, " we will shut up our place." Ac- 
cordingly I found, on returning to his house after the 
morning service, that he had said at the conclusion of 
his sermon — " My relation, Mr. Sidney, will preach at 
the church this afternoon, so this place will be closed, 
that you may all go." Obedient to his wishes, the 
people went, and the fine old church was, in conse- 
quence, crowded to excess. 

On this Sabbath Mr. Hill entered his eighty-fifth 
year, and under a solemn impression that it would be 
his last birth-day, selected for the evening text — Death 
is swallowed up in victory. His countenance was 
imusually pale, but exceedingly expressive of the train 
of serious and devout ideas that was passing through 
his mind, and of the awe with which he contemplated 
the near approach of the day when his account must 
be rendered up to God. His calm but lofty tone 
bespoke the holy repose of his own bosom. It was like 
the half-hour before sun-set, in the midst of nature's 
most majestic scenery, when there is not a breath to 
agitate the frailest leaf, or ripple the glassy smoothness 
of the water s surface — it was the sublime of tranquillity. 
Death appeared awful, and judgment appalling ; but 
his soul was composed, in the hope that the destroyer 
had been deprived of his conquest, and the judge 
propitiated, through faith in the atoning virtue of an 
all-sufficient sacrifice. This earth presents not a spec- 
tacle of equal grandeur to that of a Christian who has 
power to wrest the dart of the king of terrors from 
his hand, on the very confines of the eternal world, 
and who exults in the triumph of being made more 
than conqueror^ not by his own strength, but through 



358 



Birth-day, 1829. 



him who has loved him, and redeemed him by his 
blood. True grace ennobles and dignifies the soul, 
because the paltry thing self is cast into the dust, and 
the glory of the victory ascribed to him alone who 
sitteth on the throne till all his foes be made his foot- 
stool. Mr. Rowland Hill was happily enabled thus to 
exult in the contemplation of his death, for to him it 
was in reality deprived of its alarms. He shed no tear 
on this birth-day, but the people shed many ; and one 
poor man, devoted to his ministry, said to me — " Sir, 
I cannot bear the thought of losing him — I wish we 
could put him hack about forty years !" But the 
finger on the dial-plate of human life is capable of no 
retrograde motion ; and blessed are they who, like my 
venerable relative, watch its onward course with a 
serene and heavenly peace, as it approximates towards 
the completion of its circle. Genuine faith is always 
unmingled with presumption ; and this was eminently 
the character of the blessed hope in the breast of this 
pious servant of Christ Jesus, who trembled when he 
looked on his human infirmities ; but when he could 
look off^ from the creature, upon him who, having 
begun a good work in us, will complete it unto the 
end, he was enabled to rejoice in the prospect of death, 
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 

During our stay at Wotton, a Church Missionary 
meeting was held at Uley, and Mr. Hill determined to 
attend it, that he might express his interest in the 
prosperity of the cause. Speaking to me of the 
London Missionary Society, he said, in a jocular way 
— "You churchmen have left our society in the lurch, 

^ I recollect hearing a clergyman, equally distinguished for learning and piety, 
say — " No expression in the New Testament comforts me like the word d(pogtZvTsg, 
looking off self unto Christ." 



Church Missionary Meeting. 



359 



but I shall go for all that." When he had descended 
into the lovely vale of Uley, we arrived at the door of 
a neat, plain, and commodious building, and the coach- 
man, by whom I was sitting on the box of Mr. Hijl's 
carriage, observed to me — " Sir, this is the school- 
room that was built out of the sale of my master's 
picture." On entering the room, I perceived at the 
end opposite the temporary platform, the engraving, 
framed and glazed, a delightful testimony to the use- 
fulness both of the artist, and the subject on which she 
had so happily and successfully exercised her skill. 
When Mr. Hill rose to speak, the most profound 
interest was immediately manifested, and he addressed 
the persons present like an aged patriarch, the days of 
whose pilgrimage were nearly ended. He was, he 
said, connected with another society, in whose successes 
he was sure every one who heard him truly rejoiced, 
but he did not less, on that account, delight to join the 
exemplary individuals around him. " I love," he 
added, " to see the zeal which now animates the exer- 
tions of the vigilant ministers of the church ; and O 
let an old man, just dropping into the grave, give you 
his blessing, and urge you to abound in the work of 
the Lord, while you have youth and strength to 
labour." He afterwards dined with a neighbouring 
clergyman, and was as full of anecdote and life as I 
ever remember to have seen him. 

Mr. Rowland Hill concluded the year 1829 with 
fewer sufferings, from the feebleness of age, than were 
even indicated by his appearance, but he complained of 
much inconvenience from dimness of sight. Early in 
1830 I received a letter from him written with an 
almost youthful vivacity : — 



360 



Letter of Mr. Rowland Hill 



DEAR SIDNEY, Surry Chapel, February 167/*, 1830. 

Though I have taken up my pen to write, 
yet the day is so dark through fog, and my eyes so 
dim through age, that I can scarcely see what I write. 
No wonder at my time of life, through the severity of 
the season, I have been nearly kept a prisoner at home 
almost ever since my arrival in town for the winter^ 
My old wife came to town with a bad cold, but is now 
much better, but while this weather lasts, keeps within 
doors, by way of prevention. So much for ourselves. 
And what shall I say next — for I feel so dull and 
stupid, that I scarcely know what to say ? O yes ! 
this thought just now bites me — A few thoughts 
for a young minister. One embittered anonymous 
publisher says — " I look upon myself to be as great a 
man as the Apostle Paul." Well, that is pride with a 
witness ! — for I really think, taking him as a whole, a 
greater man never lived, since his days to the present 
day. Yet I think both you and I may be humble 
imitators of that which we can never reach. First, I 
would wish to imitate his style. O the vanity of the 
old man, to try to get up to the style of St. Paul. 
Stop a little before you bestow your censure — I never 
thought of getting up to his style, but still I will aim 
at it, by the blessing of God, by getting down to his 
style. Only read him from 1 Cor. i, 17? and through-, 
out all the second chapter, and then ask who is likely 
to do the most good to the living church of Christ ? 
Those egregious doctors of the sounding brass tribe 
may blow away with turgid trumpery, and swell away 
till they burst with pride, and the tinkling cymbal 
fid-fad musicians may try to tickle the fancy of such 
half-=witted admirers as mistake sound for sense. But 



Letter of Mr. Koivland Hill. 



361 



still how different that wise, that dignified simplicity 
of speech the Apostle used, when he preached the 
Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven, 
which so effectually wrought on the hearts of all them 
who believed : and though we should prove ourselves 
proud indeed, if we should ever fancy that we could 
reach a style like this, yet to aim at such a model 
will still be our highest wisdom, and this we shall 
never reach in any measure, but as blest with that 
wisdom and spiritual understanding which is entirely 
from above. 

I [was] reminded of this, since indisposition has 
prevented my going through the whole of the services 
on the Sabbath-day, when I heard one of the auxiliaries 
exhibit too much in the Rev. Mr. Tinhlefs style, O 
how disgusting to see a man in the garb of a minister, 
transmogrified at least half-way towards a monkey, by 
his own silly pride and self-conceit ! O how I wish 
and pray for that man in my fast declining days, 
whose wisdom and spirituality, whose simplicity and 
godly sincerity, and [heart] fired with a seraph's zeal, 
might [enable him to] spring upon the prey, and carry 
all before him. How glad should I be 

[of such a one] from some of your clerical tribe, who, 
in the fulness of his holy zeal, pants for a little more 
liberty than the church allows. 

But O for more of the outpouring of the Spirit of 
Christ among us ! But as Mrs. H. has somewhat to 

add with hearty love to you both, believe 

me to be. 

Yours most affectionately, 

Rowland Hill, 



3G2 Bible Society, 1830. 

This letter was written under the disadvantages 
mentioned in it, which caused the omissions I have 
endeavoured to supply. Indeed my venerable cor- 
respondent's eyesight was becoming very indistinct, 
and he was, for nearly two years before his death, 
obliged to dictate to an amanuensis, which he did with 
an ease and fluency truly surprising at his age. His 
infirmities at this time were not allowed to be any 
plea for repose. Mrs. Hill, in a letter to me, dated 
April 80th, 1830, says—" Mr. Hill, notwithstanding 
a very bad cold, started yesterday for a fortnight's 
tour in Kent," and he appeared much better for the 
journey on his return, though he had been very active 
in preaching. When I arrived in London in May, I 
had the happiness to find him wonderfully well in 
health, and as full of holy zeal as ever. On the 
anniversary of the Bible Society, he said to me at 
breakfast — " Sidney, are you going to the Bible meeting 
to-day — because I mean to go — I wish to be there 
once more." Somebody suggested that the fatigue 
might be too much for him, when he laughed, and said 
— " I tell you what, I will go, so there is an end of it : 
ring the bell, and tell them to get the carriage ready 
directly." We arrived late ; the great room in Free- 
mason's Hall was full, and a speaker was addressing 
the assembly. Mr. Hill entered with a firm step, 
requiring no other assistance but my arm ; and the 
instantaneous burst of applause that succeeded the 
announcement of his name, and continued even after 
he had reached the platform, seemed almost to over- 
power him. He was called on to move the thanks of 
the meeting to the vice-presidents, and rose amidst 
reiterated plaudits with a dignity of manner well 
suited to his age and character. He was much 



Bible Society, 1830. 



363 



embarrassed when he commencecl, but soon rallied, to 
pay a well-merited compliment to the excellent prelates 
who were among the subjects of his motion, and to 
the scriptural tone of the service of the church. At 
length he recovered altogether, and with a look of 
humour, which soon communicated its influence to his 
hearers, he drew up and said — " I once did, indeed, 
hear of a clergyman who made an apology for being 
at a Bible Society. An apology for being at a Bible 
Society! Well, then, he should make an apology for 
reading the liturgy, which is so full of the Bible ; he 
should make an apology for reading the Psalms ; and 
then he should make an apology for reading the first 
and second lessons. Next, he should make an apology 
for reading the ten commandments, and another for 
reading the epistles and gospels. In short, if he did 
his duty, he would have a great many too many 
apologies to make, for a great part of his duty is to 
read the Bible. I therefore conceive that our venerable 
prelates do themselves great honour by attending here 
to-day, since they preside over a church which has so 
much of the Bible in its public service." To this he 
added much in a grave and solemn tone, praying that 
the bishops might long live to put their hands on those 
who should yearn over souls in the bowels of Jesus 
Christ, declaring that he should rejoice on his death- 
bed in the recollection, that one of his last speeches 
had been made in behalf of the Bible Society, and con- 
cluding with his blessing. The effect of Mr. Hill's 
speech, heightened by his dignified and venerable 
appearance, was adverted to with real feeling by those 
who succeeded him. Amongst others who applauded 
him, I was particularly struck with the Christian joy 
and admiration that beamed upon the countenance 



364 Mr. Wilherforce. Lord Teignmouth. 



of Mr. Wilberforce, the expression of which, when 
lighted up, indicated a mind full of wisdom, generosity, 
and kindness. Mr. Hill remarked of him — " I do not 
know the good quality that dear man does not possess ; 
and how such a multitude of excellences could ever 
have been condensed into one human being, is to me 
the greatest miracle of nature I ever saw. I have 
known him many years, and never did I see in him 
one thing I did not love, and yet every time I see him, 
I think I find something in him to love more." Lord 
Teignmouth was prevented by illness from being 
present at this meeting, but he was sufficiently re- 
covered to call on Mr. Rowland Hill about a fortnight 
after. I was present at the interview, and truly can I 
say, the whole heart of the President of the Bible 
Society appeared to be in that sacred cause. I re- 
member an observation which he made — " O Mr. Hill, 
in a few years more, into what insignificance will the 
followers of this world's ambitious projects sink, com- 
pared with the true greatness of the simple servant of 
Christ, or missionary to the heathen, who, in defiance 
of all reproach, has spent his devoted life in spreading 
the gospel ! " It was gratifying to see this venerable 
nobleman and the aged subject of this memoir entering 
into a work so great and glorious, with an energy no 
earthly object could have inspired. 



3C5 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Last illness of Mrs. Hill, 

Though the severe operation to which Mrs. Rowland 
Hill submitted with so much fortitude was the means 
of preserving her life for several years, her frame 
never fully recovered the shock it received. During 
the spring of 1830 she often expressed a conviction 
that her earthly career was drawing to a close, a 
foreboding which was unhappily realized shortly after 
her departure from London. Her health suddenly 
gave way during the summer, and gradually declined 
to the day of her death. The last letter I ever 
received from her, and probably the last she ever 
dictated, is in the handwriting of Mr. Hill's con- 
fidential servant, Mr. Charles Goring. It is as follows : — 

MY DEAR SIDNEY, Wotton, July 20th, 1830. 

Not knowing till now what my movements 
were likely to be, prevented my writing or allowing 
Charles to write to you before, according to your 
desire. I am sorry to acquaint you that my health is 
worse than when you left me in London. I have just 
been to Gloucester to consult Dr. Barron, who, from 
my great age, is, I believe, doubtful of my restoration 
to health. I am, at present, no better for his advice, 
and am extremely weak, scarcely able to go up or down 
stairs. By the doctor's advice I have relinquished all 
thoughts of going to the sea. He also says I must be 
kept as quiet as possible. May the Lord prepare me 
for his will, whether it be for life or death. I am glad 



366 



Last illness of Mrs. Hill. 



to tell you Mr. Hill is as well as can be expected. 
With our united love to yourself and Mrs. Sidney, 
who I hope is much better, 

I am, dear Sidney, 

Yours affectionately, 

M. Hill. 

In the beginning of the month of August her illness 
became alarming, and the mournful tidings of her 
approaching dissolution were thus communicated to me 
by Mr. Rowland Hill. 

DEAR SIDNEY, Wottouj August I2th, 1830. 

I am now passing through deep waters, and 
I feel myself almost overwhelmed by them. I fear 
the increasing debility, which of late has been making 
a rapid progress upon Mrs. Hill's constitution, will 
soon terminate in her dissolution ; nor does the best 
human means, or medical aid, in the least avail. Con- 
sidering her natural timidity, she is as calm as can be 
expected ; but O the solemn stroke of death ! The 
thoughts of such a separation sink my spirits exceed- 
ingly. I would still try to labour, but under such 
burdened spirits, how difficult the task! While the 
feelings of human nature cannot, and indeed should 
not altogether be resisted, yet still it is [our] duty to 
say — " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken 
away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Love to you 
both, from Yours, very affectionately, 

Rowland Hill. 
P.S. Mrs. Hill is now so exceedingly weak, that no 
persons but her immediate attendants are permitted to 
see her. I mention this, as Charles has hinted your 
kind intention of giving us a visit, to take your leave 



Death of Mrs. Hill. 



3G7 



of your departing friend. I almost fear that if you 
were to travel immediately, with all possible expe- 
dition, you would scarcely find her alive, while the 
result of such a visit would only give pain to her mind. 
In a great measure, her recollection seems nearly gone, 
through the weakness of her bodily frame. 

He bore the death of Mrs. Hill, which took place 
on the 17th of August, with the truest Christian 
resignation. A few days after the funeral, he wrote 
me a long and kind letter, which will give the 
best idea of the state of his mind under this afflicting 
bereavement. 

O MY DEAR SIDNEY, Wotton-under-edge^ Aug. 2^^, 1830. 

My dear wife is gone, but just a step before 
me, into the world of spirits. Her decline, at the last, 
was very rapid. Though the innocent aberrations of 
her mind, during the last few days of her life, were 
somewhat painful, and drew many a tear from my 
eyes, yet, at collected intervals, she would be in a state 
of fervent ejaculatory prayer ; and I am satisfied that 
they who die under the influences of the spirit of 
prayer, will awake up in the regions of eternal praise. 
She is now deposited in the vault where your grand- 
mother and your parents lie, and I, according to the 
regular course of nature, must very soon be added to 
their number. And, O that God would give the grace 
that we may so apply our hearts unto wisdom, that 
neither the splendour of any thing that is great, or the 
silly conceit of any thing that is good in us, may in 
any way withdraw our eyes from beholding ourselves 
as sinful dust and ashes. Every moment we are in 
danger, especially if We are admired by the half- 



368 



Letter of Mr, Rowlaiid Hill 



professors of the day. What an important admonition 
— love not the world. 

Though I am glad that I dissuaded you from your 
kind purpose of a journey to Wotton, to see Mrs. Hill 
before her departure, as it would have answered no end, 
yet you cannot but be assured at all times how happy 
I am to see you when in town. To that place of my 
winter's residence I suppose I must make another, 
and, most probably, my last effort to resort. I begin 
to feel for the future prosperity of the Surry Chapel 
congregation exceedingly. I know that good ministers 
must be of God's own making and sending ; and while 
my prayers are not wanting at a throne of grace, that 
the Lord would send us one after his own heart, to be 
my helpmate in my fast declining days, yet, hitherto, 
the blessing has been withheld. Though I have 
hitherto kept myself detached from all those little 
sectarian principles which so miserably divide the 
church, yet even that seems to operate against me. 
The dissenter, by the contracted discipline of the 
church, feels himself thrust at a distance, and conse- 
quently keeps his distance, while their mutual preju- 
dices are augmented thereby. O when shall that 
happy day dawn upon us when real Christians and 
Christian ministers, of all denominations, shall come 
nearer to each other. In some parts, blessed be God, 
this has been in a measure accomplished. With us, I 
fear, the contrary is to be lamented. I once had 
several of the clergy of the establishment to lend me 
their friendly aid ; this [not being the case now] the 
more pains me, as from an education bias, I should be 
happy to obtain the help from that quarter I so deeply 
need; but such chapels must be given over to the 
church, or they are not assisted by it. 



on tite death of Mrs. Hill. 



369 



I bless God my dear Sidney is not half such a Jine 
preacher as they have got at — . He is now their 
fixture ; I should be sadly grieved at such a fixture 
with us. See the character of a preacher as depicted 
by Paul, 1 Cor. ii, — that is the preacher to whom, with 
the greatest thankfulness, I should be happy to give 
the right-hand of fellowship ; and then old Simeon's 
song shall be my death-bed song of praise, on behalf of 
a people I love as my own soul, many of whom are my 
crown and rejoicing in the Lord — "Lord [now] lettest 
thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have 
seen thy salvation." 

With kind affection to your deservedly much-beloved, 
believe me to be. 

Yours, very affectionately, 

Rowland Hill. 

To a friend,^ whose kind and affectionate consola- 
tions were highly valued by Mr. Rowland Hill, he 
expresses himself on the loss he had sustained in these 
terms : " It could not but be supposed, that after a 
union of [nearly] sixty years, a separation must have 
been severely felt. Though for some weeks before 
Mrs. Hill's departure I was prepared for the stroke, 
yet, when the solemn event really took place, I found 
that anticipation proved but a feeble defence of what 
afterwards I was called to feel. You had once the 
same sharp trial to sustain, and I am sure, after such a 
trial as you were called to undergo, nature must have 
had hard struggles in you before you could say meekly, 
* Thy will be done.' To live without natural affection 
converts a man into a monster. The Creator of our 



Henry Brooker, Esq., Brighton. 

2 B 



370 Resignation of Mr. Rowland Hill. 

nature has kindly interwoven it in our constitutions, to 
operate as a social bond between each other. Were we 
without it, the world would be a thousand times worse 
than it is ; and though these bonds are most cruelly- 
violated among such as are in a course of nature, yet, 
where grace reigns through righteousness, how sweetly 
are we united to each other thereby, and how com- 
fortably are we directed to those social and relative 
duties between each other, in which the present happi- 
ness of human life so much consists. While we are 
here, [we are] directed to love each other ' with pure 
hearts fervently,' [and] in the accomplishment of that 
command, we taste somewhat of the heaven that shall 
be, for heaven is a heaven of love, for ' God is love.' 
No wonder, if we feel at times considerable pain when 
these silken cords are snapped asunder in this world by 
the violent hands of death; but, blessed be God, in 
those regions where death can no more enter, such 
sorrows can never interrupt our everlasting joy — 
* there we shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow 
and sighing shall flee away.' " 

For more than half a century had Mr. and Mrs. Row- 
land Hill been united by ties of the purest Christian 
affection, such as are happily not severed by death, but 
extend into another state of existence, leaving to the 
survivor the only true consolation, that members of the 
Redeemer's family, both in earth and heaven, are still 
one in him. The opposite characteristics of this truly 
venerable pair were, during a very long life, blended 
together in the most perfect harmony ; and being each 
equally desirous to do good, what was wanting for this 
end in one was generally supplied by the other. Gifted 
with a sound and discriminating judgment, Mrs. Hill 
managed with peculiar tact the difficult task of con- 



Letter to Mr. Jonei-. 



371 



trolling her husband's ardent nature, without checking 
his usefulness or activity ; and the weight of her in- 
fluence was so nicely balanced, that it restrained but 
did not repress, it wisely directed but did not dictate. 
The understanding with which she accepted the offer 
of the young itinerant's hand, while in the fervour of 
his youthful zeal, was never forgotten nor evaded by 
her, nor did she, in a single instance, during the whole 
term of their union, suffer personal convenience or in- 
clination to impede such movements as he considered it 
his duty to make. Mrs. Hill's natural reserve pre- 
vented her being known or appreciated by casual 
visitors ; but those whom she admitted to intimacy 
will ever cherish the liveliest recollections of the sin- 
cerity of her friendship, and of the solid though retiring 
qualities of her mind. 

Instead of giving way to unavailing grief, or suffer- 
ing his mind to prey upon itself in seclusion, Mr. Row- 
land Hill endeavoured to find comfort in affliction by 
seeking it in the concerns of his ministry. The mem- 
bers of Surry Chapel were perpetually in his thoughts, 
and he used to express great anxiety for their welfare. 
He recollected that he had forgotten to give Mr. Jones, 
who went to supply his London pulpit soon after the 
funeral of Mrs. Hill, some instructions he thought 
necessary for the furtherance of his peculiar discipline, 
and as soon as the omission occurred to him he wrote 
as follows on the subject : — 

MY DEAR BROTHER JONES, Wotton, 7th September, 1830. 

Before you went off for London I forgot to 
mention one thing. Though it is much more difficult 
to keep up proper Christian discipline in London than 
in the country, yet if we cannot do what we would, we 

2b2 



372 



Letter to Mr. Jones. 



should do what we can, and aim at such a discipline as 
may prove a check to some, if it cannot prove a suffi- 
cient check to all. I have, therefore, felt my mind 
much grieved, that the visiting ministers at Surry 
Chapel, during my absence, look upon our communi- 
cants' meeting, on a Monday evening, as unworthy of 
their notice and attention, whereby bad becomes abun- 
dantly worse. I am very soon to leave all these con- 
cerns, as it respects the church below, yet I wish to 
leave things in as good a plight as circumstances will 
admit ; and for this end, let me humbly request you to 
set such an example, by your punctual attendance, that 
others may be excited, by your good example, to be 
ashamed to neglect that part of the service [to] which 
it is their duty to attend. 

Alas for me ! since the death of my attentive wife, 
the temporal concerns of my family, and little farming 
matters, are brought under my notice ; and though I 
am thankful for the attention of and my servant 

Charles, somewhat of superintendency is needed by me, 

* « * * * 

so much about the little things of this world. May the 
Lord make you the happy honoured instrument of pre- 
paring souls for a better world than this which I must 
soon leave. How happy should I be if I [could] live 
nearer to God. Most affectionate love to all, from 
theirs and 

Yours very sincerely, 

Rowland Hill. 

Soon after the painful event by which he had been 
bereaved of the beloved partner in his early sorrows 
and more recent joys, Mr. Rowland Hill quitted, for a 
few weeks, those scenes which daily reminded him of 



Leamington. 



373 



his trials and his loss. He went to Leamington, in 
Warwickshire, and endeavoured to divert his thoughts 
from affliction, by superintending the affairs of a chapel 
he designed to manage upon his customary plan. Un- 
expected opposition arose to the introduction of the 
liturgy, but he persevered successfully in his determina.- 
tion to make the service as like that of our church as 
possible. He wrote me a long letter, in which he men- 
tions the difficulties he had encountered. " I am greatly 
indebted," he says, "to the support of some liberal- 
minded Dissenters in that place ; " but he annexes to 
this declaration, a strong complaint against the preju- 
dices of others, who were hostile to the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer. This gave him the greatest uneasiness, 
and called forth the following characteristic question 
and reply in the letter just mentioned : — " What sort 
of an evil is a sectarian spirit? It is the cruel iron 
wedge, of the devil's own forging, to separate Christians 
from each other — Christians thereby become like di- 
vided armies." With regard to the promoters of his 
object at Leamington, he says — They are very anxious 
to come as near the church as they possibly can ; but 
if they were to resign their chapel entirely to the 
church, they exclude at one stroke every other Pro- 
testant minister of any denomination." He proceeds, 
"While, therefore, the people at Leamington have 
opened their large and handsome chapel, by adopting 
the liturgic service, and have settled matters accord- 
ingly, yet, in the admission of good ministers of every 
denomination, they choose a little more liberty than the 
church allows." Mr. Hill was to the end a strong ad- 
vocate for the liturgy of the church, and confessed, that 
while he condemned all formality in prayer, he found 
his devotions much assisted by our spiritual and edi- 



374 



Letter of Mr, ' Rozvland Hill. 



fying forms. It is part of the truest glory of our 
nation, that it possesses, under the sanction of the 
state, such an admirable standard of what the spirit of 
devotion in a people ought to be, which it is surely 
much more calculated to inspire than many — to use an 
expression of Mr. Hill's — of the "tiresome forms of 
others, disguised in an extemporaneous dress." I once 
mentioned to him, that I had heard it had been ob- 
served by a clergyman of his acquaintance — If a man 
could but hear only half of the extempore prayers 
offered up in this country on any one Sunday, he 
would fall down on his knees in an ecstacy, to give 
vent to his thankfulness for the liturgy." — " That he 
would, sure enough," he replied ; '* and let me ask, if a 
man's heart cannot respond to those spiritual petitions 
which abound in our service, what has grace done in 
it ?" It is, indeed, also a matter of surprise, that they 
who object to forms altogether, do not see plainly, that 
if the words of supplication used by the minister are 
adopted by the people, they become to them, though 
uttered extempore, in every sense of the word, a form, 
Mr. Rowland Hill returned to Wotton for a short 
time after his visit to Leamington, and then proceeded 
to London. In the beginning of the year 1831 he 
wrote me the following letter 

MY DEAR SIDNEY, Lmdon, January 1th, 1831. 

# * * ^ic * # # # 

You talk of a visit to London ; w^henever you can 
come I shall be happy to receive both you and yours. 

and how happy should I be if you were but permitted 
to allow me your pulpit services for my domestic ac- 
commodation. No wonder that I now feel myself 



Letter of Mr. Rowland Hill. 



375 



worn out, both in body and mind. However the set- 
ting sun in its decline may diminish in respect of its 
meridian splendour, yet, in the magnificence of its 
beauty, it finishes its high celestial progress with a 
most grateful and pleasing serenity to the beholder's 
eye. You, dear Sidney, are, I trust, but still rising to 
the meridian of your ministerial career, not to be 
eclipsed by the clouds and mists that arise from this 
lower world. O that your fine path may be like the 
path of the just, shining more and more unto the per- 
fect day!" In short, may your sun set with more 
grandeur than ever it arose, till it shall again arise in 
those bright regions as yet unknown to us, to set no 
more ! 

While I was writing the above, yours arrived. I 
quite agree with you as it respects the evil tendency of 
the prophetic fancies that are jumping about in the 
skulls of some young clerical divines. I fear it will 
prove the cause of thrusting out some better things 
from their hearts, which will be the case, unless estab- 
lished by grace. 

these interruptions ! — when will they suffer me 
to finish this jumble? Still their visit was on a most 

important object, Leamington. That will 

draw a long sum out of my short purse. Most gladly, 
however, will that be parted with, if the end can be 
accomplished. 

* * * * * * 

1 have marked the end of April, when you and 
yours are to be expected ; but age so seriously bids me 
to look into the grave, that it is now high time to speak 
with caution respecting a future day. 

Yours affectionately, 

R. Hill, 



376 



Letter of Mr. Rowland Hill. 



Early in February I received another letter from 
him, in which he again alludes to the prophetic ques- 
tions mentioned in the last. 

MY DEAR SIDNEY, Surry Chapeh Feb. 4, 1831. 

Charles must write 
While I indite, 
For lack of sight, 
By candle-light. 

I remember the time you 

propose to visit me, and shall be happy to see you both. 

What a number of have got addleheaded 

on the subject of the personal reign of Christ. I have 

been lately told that is infected with the same 

mania. God help you and me to preach on the spiri- 
tual reign of Christ as much as we can : we never can 
go too far on that subject, I am sure this wild mania 
will be productive of much mischief, among some other- 
wise good-minded people. — may keep his mag- 
gots and fine flourishing style to himself. I like Paul's 
plain style best. Better to feed the appetite of the 
hungry, than to tickle the fancies of the whimsical. 
This breed of preachers are apt soon to preach them- 
selves out of breath, and come to nothing. May you 
and I never be the retailers of such whipt-syllahuh 
divinity — better keep a cook's-shop to satisfy the crav- 
i?ig appetite, than a confectioner's-shop to regale the 
dej^raved appetite of the dainty. Good hrown-hread 
preaching is the best after all. I have been much 
shut up by a cold this winter, and expect soon to be 
shut up in my coffin — O for an increasing hope full of 
immortality ! 

Yours very affectionately, 
Kind love to your wife. Rowland Hill. 



Prophecy. Quotation from Bishop Hall, 377 

In another letter to me upon the same subject he 
remarks — " I believe the present itch to prophesy 
upon prophecy, is calculated to promote much evil, 
and but little good. I believe no prophecy is to be 
understood till after it is accomplished. We may most 
safely conjecture, but not rashly determine, the times 
and seasons respecting such future events, which the 
Father hath kept in his own hands. Some people 
seem to have more brains of a certain sort than they 
know well how to manage : skittish fancy next steps 
in, sets the imagination at work, and from the symbo- 
lical and figurative expressions, in which future events 
are wisely hid from our eyes, whimsies by thousands 
possess the brain. But what is the bad result ? Why, as 
these speculations are so very various, most of them 
must be wrong ; and what sort of effect is this likely 
to produce on infidel minds ? An extract, however, is 
more to the point, from Bishop Hall — far beyond that 
which can be produced from the brains of Kowland 
Hill — ' O, blessed Saviour, what strange variety of con- 
ceits do I find concerning thy thousand years' reign ! 
What riddles are there in that prophecy which no 
human tongue can read ! Where to fix the beginning 
of that marvellous millenary and where the end ; and 
what manner of reign it shall be, whether temporal or 
spiritual, on earth or in heaven, undergoes as many 
constructions as there are pens that have undertaken 
it ; and yet when all is done, I see thine apostle speak 
only of the souls of the martyrs reigning so long with 
thee, not of thy reigning so long on earth with those 
martyrs. How busy are the tongues of men — how are 
their brains taken up with the indeterminable con- 
struction of this enigmatical truth, when, in the mean 
time, the care of thy spiritual reign in their hearts is 



37B Mr. HilVs views as to his successor. 

neglected ! O, my Saviour, while others weary them- 
selves with the disquisition of thy personal reign here 
upon earth for a thousand years, let it be the whole 
bent and study of my soul to make sure of my personal 
reign with thee in heaven to all eternity.' " 

In the spring of 1831, Mr. Rowland Hill's mind 
was exceedingly occupied with the affairs of the chapel 
at Leamington, which he determined to get entirely 
into his own possession. He says, in a letter to a 
friend, dated February 12 — " I am about to take upon 
myself the concerns of a large and handsome chapel at 
Leamington Spa, and put it into the hands of the Vil- 
lage Itinerancy, as future trustees for the public good." 
He became extremely anxious about a fit and proper 
minister for that place of fashionable resort, and also 
for the appointment of his successor at Surry Chapel. 
Mr. Hill was very desirous to be succeeded by a cler- 
gyman of the Church of England, of sentiments similar 
to his own, " who wished for a little more liberty." I 
frequently ventured to hint to him, that he would have 
little chance of finding in these times such a clergy- 
man as he would approve, willing to accept his offer, 
unless he would allow his chapel to be placed under 
episcopal management. Well," he replied, " Sidney, 
in that you must come over to me, not I to you church- 
men — I cannot do it." His feelings on this question 
will be further evident, from a conversation which 
passed between him and his friend Mr. Collison, tutor 
of the seminary attached to the Village Itinerancy, who 
kindly gave me the substance of it in the following 
terms ; — " He (Mr. Hill) stated to me, that he had been 
asked the question, whether Surry Chapel could not 
become, by an acf^ in his life-time, a regular episcopal 



* To such an act it was necessary that the other Trustees of Surry Chapel 
should concur in Mr, Hill's views. 



Mr. HilVs views as to his successor. 379 

chapel, under appropriate jurisdiction, and conform- 
able to that order ? He paused before he gave me his 
reply, and with great solemnity of manner he ex- 
claimed — ' I said, No, I cannot do that — when Surry 
Chapel was erected, it was on the broad ground of the 
gospel. I received money from good people of all 
denominations, on my personal assurance that it should 
be so applied.' — Rising from his chair, and deepening 
the tones of his voice, he continued, * I pledged myself 
that Surry Chapel pulpit should be open to approved 
and good ministers of the gospel, of all denominations, 
I have always acted upon this plan, and I cannot with 
a good conscience do otherwise.' " 

The clergymen from whom Mr. Rowland Hill 
would have willingly selected his successor were too 
much attached to the church to desert it upon any 
terms, even for a sphere of labour which came so ap- 
parently near their own in form. His anxiety to be 
assisted in his old age, and followed at his death by an 
episcopally ordained minister, was very great. In a 
letter to me he says, after a few remarks on seeing no 
prospect of my obtaining preferment — " that, however, 
shall rest with yourself, as I should be heartily glad, 
as I am just going out of the world, to see you estab- 
lished Rector of Surry Chapel [and] Vicar of Leaming- 
ton, where a very handsome chapel will soon be in my 
hands." ^ He adds, in his humorous way-—" I say 
nothing about making you perpetual curate of Wot- 
ton-under-edge, being only a fit place of preferment for 
the poor Welchman who is there already." 



^ He purchased this chapel soon after. 



380 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Bible Society, 1831. 

The effort made in the year 1831 to change the con- 
stitution of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and 
the unusual scene at its anniversary, will long be re- 
membered with regret by every sincere friend of that 
institution. In the midst of the confusion which per- 
vaded the meeting Mr. Rowland Hill rose to speak, 
and was received with all the respect due to his age, 
character, and experience. In a few words, uttered 
with the truest dignity of manner, he pointed out the 
real nature of the question by which they were agitated, 
and rebuked the impatient spirit of the assembly. On 
the proposal to exclude from the society all persons 
not professing belief in the doctrine of the Holy Tri- 
nity, he remarked, that he wished all such belonged 
to it, because the Bible contained " the truth to con- 
vince them of their errors ; " and he placed the point 
at issue on its proper footing, by the observation, " 1 
do not ask who gives me the Bible, but what sort of 
a Bible he gives me?" After adverting to the sad 
spectacle presented by the want of harmony among 
Christians, and to the triumph it afforded unbelievers, 
Mr. Hill declared his determination to take leave of 
them till the restoration of that happy union by which 
they had so long been distinguished. Being detained 
at the election for the University of Cambridge, I did 
not reach Surry Chapel house till the evening of the 
day on which he made his memorable protest against 



Bible Society, 1831. 



381 



all innovations in the constitution of the Bible Society. 
Mrs. Sidney arrived on the previous Monday, and as 
he had not seen her since Mrs. Hill's death, he was at 
first much agitated, and put out his hand without 
speaking. After a short time he said, "So you are 
come to see a poor old man, left all alone, just dropping 
into the grave," and made affecting allusions to his 
loss. As I was unable to get to town till between 
eleven and twelve o'clock at night, I found Mr. Hill 
was gone to bed ; but he came down the next morning 
full of the preceding day's meeting—" Sidney," he 
began, " I went to the Bible Society yesterday, but 
there was such a noise I came away." 

I told him I expected there would be a great com- 
motion. 

" Commotion indeed ; " he replied, " you never heard 
any thing like it. The proposal to turn out the Soci- 
nians appears to me to be altogether, in the present 
state of the society, unreasonable and unwise. If there 
was a danger of their gaining an ascendancy, or if 
they gave away another version of the Scriptures, I 
should be for separating from them at once ; but as 
long as they are in, the minority, and are content to 
circulate our Bibles, it is quite preposterous to refuse 
to let them distribute the only antidote to their own 
errors. Why, for my part, I should be glad to get a 
Mahometan to receive and disperse our Bibles ; he 
might get good, and would do good." 

" What do you think, sir," I asked, " of the other 
question on which so much has been said — beginning 
the proceedings with prayer ? Surely you will be of 
opinion, that it is possible for Christians to meet in the 
spirit of prayer, without the act, especially with such 
different views as to the latter," 



382 



Mr. Iliirs last mk&ionarij day. 



" Certainly it is ; and I consider the introduction of 
any religious form or test into the Bible Society utterly 
unnecessary — nay, im practicable." 

The missionary day at Surry Chapel this year was 
the last Mr. Hill ever attended. He said in 1829, 
just before he entered the chapel, " I will read prayers 
a couple of years longer ; then I will give it up — 
and his prediction, if such it may be called, was ful- 
filled. He was in very low spirits the whole day, 
caused chiefly by his recollection, that it was the first 
occasion of the kind he had ever been without Mrs. Hill. 
As he went to the house, carrying a plate filled by 
those who pressed to give him their contributions, he 
sobbed aloud, and I heard him say as he came into the 
room, in a voice almost inarticulate through his emo- 
tion — "Another good minister^ gone, I shall soon 
myself be numbered with the dead ; Lord help me to 
do a little more for him while I live." He gave his 
usual dinner, and I sat in the place till then occupied 
by Mrs. Hill ; but a mournful foreboding prevailed— 
the shadow of death seemed to cast a gloom over the 
party. Mr. Hill scarcely spoke a word, but returned 
thanks after dinner with the most impressive solemnity, 
and when his guests departed, he retired to take his 
usual rest, after which he became more cheerful. 

Though the age and loneliness of Mr. Hill at times 
occasioned great depression, he was quite as frequently 
in a lively humour, and retained all his characteristic 
wit and drollery. One evening, when he was in high 
spirits, and enjoying a newspaper, which a relation 
was reading to him, a visitor was announced, who en- 



' He had just been informed of the death of a minister with whom he had long 
been acquainted. 



Gift of tongues. 



383 



teied the room with the air of a man about to commu- 
nicate some important or interesting intelligence. 

" Sir, I have the greatest pleasure in calling on you, 
to say, that I can offer you the opportunity of meeting 
a person endowed with a wonderful gift indeed." 

" Pray, sir, what is that ? I am getting almost too 
old to go a wonder hunting." 

" The miraculous gift of tongues, sir ; a lady pos- 
sessing it is coming to spend a few hours with me, 
and I hasten to ask you to m.eet her." 

Mr. Hill inquired, after sighing out, " Oh, dear ! " 
with a wistful glance at the newspaper, " What lan- 
guage does she speak ? " 

« Why, sir, that is not known ; some think she 
speaks two — but it is evidently regular language." 

" Two languages no one can understand ! — enough 
to craze any body." 

" Oh, Mr. Hill ! I am sorry to see an old man at 
your age ridicule such things." 

" Are you, indeed, sir ? I do not think I shall leave 
it off for all that." 

The visitor, still unwilling to depart without making 
a proselyte, renewed his arguments, to the annoyance 
of Mr. Hill, who was always disappointed when inter- 
rupted in a newspaper. 

The next question was — " If nobody knows what 
she says, how was it discovered that she speaks two 
languages ? " 

This, as may be supposed, elicited no satisfactory 
explanation ; but by way of terminating difficulties, as 
well as the visit, it was suggested as desirable, that 
some celebrated linguist should hear her performance 
of sounds. 

The champion of tongues, finding his eloquence 



384 



Gift of tongues. 



unavailing, at length took leave, expressing his regret 
at Mr. Hill's incredulity, to which the latter courteously- 
observed — " I thank you, sir, all the same for your 
kind invitation ; but if she does not understand what 
she says herself, it is not likely that I should be much 
the wiser." 

The worthy visitor, shaking his head, only replied — 

Oh, sir ! I wish you could once see and hear, and 
then you would be convinced." 

When he was gone, Mr. Hill looked up and said — 
" Now finish the debate — my poor old brains can take 
that in, though they cannot reach this wonderful 
woman's whimsies." 

Mr. Rowland Hill never mentioned those modern 
exhibitions called the gift of tongues, without either 
ridiculing or deploring them ; and it is indeed much 
to be lamented that Christians should have been so led 
away by the power of their own imaginations. In the 
days of the apostles the miraculous agency of the Holy 
Spirit was given for clear and determinate purposes, 
and the gift of tongues was to enable unlearned but 
inspired men to address the Gentiles in their own lan- 
guages. No one can deny that they were given with 
this view on the day of Pentecost ; and that their sub- 
sequent design was the same, is evident from the words 
of St. Paul — tongues are for a sign^ not to them that 
believe, hut to them that believe not^ and, therefore, 
as is justly observed by Whitby, not to be used in 
assemblies of the former. This declaration, and the 
following question of the apostle, surely ought to be 
decisive with such as have contended for the manifesta- 
tions of the present day : — " If, therefore, the whole 
church be come together into one place ^ and all speak 

2 1 xiv. 22. 



Gift of tongues. 



385 



tvith tongues, and there come in those that are 
unlearned or unhellevers^ will they not say ye are 
madt^ The diversities of gifts spoken of by St. Paul 
were evidently essential to the early churches. These 
were, ivisdom to teach ; Imowledge to comprehend ; 
faith to enable them to work miracles ; prophecy to 
foresee and describe the trials, supports, and condition 
of their converts, and the church at large ; discerning 
of spiints to discriminate between operations of the 
Holy Ghost and the power of evil spirits, or the imagi- 
nations of men, as well as to judge of the sincerity and 
qu.alifications of individuals for various offices ; the 
gift of tongues to address strangers ; the gift of inter- 
pretation to describe what was thus spoken. All these 
were wanted in an infant church perfectly opposed to 
the world, and whose success depended not on the 
agency of man, but on the miraculous aid of the Spirit 
of its Divine Founder. The planting of Christianity 
was by the extraordinary powers of the Holy Ghost, 
its watejnng and increase by the ordinary, and the 
Divine agency is never exerted without a definite 
object ; nothing is done in vain, either in the natural 
or the spiritual creation of God. If it be inquired, 
what proof have we of the presence of the Divine Spirit 
in the visible church of Christ, I answer, in the greatest 
of all miracles, the conversion of a soul. Neither heal- 
ing diseases, raising the dead, or infliction of sudden 
judgments, is to be compared with that power which, 
by means of an instrument so simple as preaching, lays 
the proud heart of man in the dust before the cross, 
raises him to holy joy, alters the habits of his mind and 
tenor of his life, gives him strength to bear scoffing 
and persecution, takes away the terrors of the grave, 

1 Cor. V, 23. 

2 C 



386 



The Christian pilgrimage. 



and turas the active current of the soul from the crea- 
ture to God, from self to Christ, from sin to holiness. 
This is a miracle which the unbeliever ought to see, if 
he does not. But no sign can savingly convert ; this 
is the province of a direct influence of the Holy Ghost 
on hearts harder than adamant, till the Lord melts 
them by the fire of his word, and impresses on them 
when softened the seal of his Divine image. God 
designs to raise from the chaotic mass of darkness and 
disorder that surrounds us, a creation of light and 
order, to his own glory ; but here the sublimity of the 
Holy Spirit's agency consists in its gentleness : as in 
producing the old world, it is described as " brooding 
o'er the vast abyss," so now it rests with dove-like 
tenderness on the church, making it gradually pregnant 
with eternal glory, and indicates not its presence by 
fanatic gestures, wild and unmeaning exclamations, or 
the dreams and visions of enthusiasm. 

Though the natural disposition of Mr. Hill's mind 
led him perpetually, even to the last, to indulge his 
propensity to humour, there were abundant evi- 
dences in him of ripening for a better world as he 
approached the solemn verge of eternity. He fre- 
quently sat silent in the window of his dining-room, 
ejaculating scriptural expressions ; and sometimes 
when a thought struck him, he used in his easy way 
to turn his reflections on it into verse. I possess a 
great many scraps of paper with these rhymes, some 
of them scarcely legible by reason of his impaired 
vision. I will give a specimen on the subject of the 
Christian pilgrimage 

Strangers and pilgrims here below, 
On us the pilgrim's mind bestow ! 
That we may tread that happy ground 
Where peace, and heaven itself, is found. 



Accide9it to Mr. HiU. 



387 



■ Tis midnight darkness here below, 
While every step leads on to woe, 
'Till thy dear Spirit gives the light 
That makes the road divinely bright. 

O ! that the light might shine abroad 
Which leads to happiness and God ! 
Then [new-born] souls shall crowd the way 
That leads to everlasting day. 

Thy cheerful pilgrims then shall trace 
Those peaceful paths of righteousness ; 
Nor shall the enemy annoy 
The blissful rest their souls enjoy. 

Onward they march, with growing strength, 
'Till they arrive in heaven at length. 
Where they their pilgrim's staff resign 
To him who saves by grace divine. 

Dear Lord of pilgrims ! lead us on, 
While trusting on thy strength alone, 
'Till we our strongest foes subdue, 
And sing the song for ever new. 

As Mr. Rowland Hill was getting into his carriage, 
after one of the meetings at Exeter Hall in the spring of 
1831, he grazed his leg against the step. He said it 
smarted a little, but took no further notice. In a few 
days it began to assume the appearance of violent inflam- 
mation, and confined him for some time to the house, of 
which, notwithstanding his great age, he was very im- 
patient. The injury was near being attended with the 
most serious results, from the difficulty in persuading 
him to nurse the limb sufficiently. While confined 
by this accident, his mind was much occupied with 
the affairs of his chapel at Leamington. The young 
man to whom he had committed the charge of that 
congregation received many letters from him, in which 
his observations on the temporal affairs of the place 
are interspersed with spiritual remarks, affording the 
most gratifying proof of preparation for heaven. He 
says in one of them — God will make you a bless- 

2 c 2 



388 



Valley of humiliation. 



ing, so long as he shall keep you in the dust before 
him. It will be no great criminality, if I make a 
little alteration in [one passage] of the sacred volume. 
' He filleth the hungry with good things, but the 
proud he sendeth empty away.' O that most lovely 
valley of humiliation ! — the safest, the most lovely, the 
most fertile spot between the City of Destruction [and 
Heaven]. May you get into it, make your constant 
abode in it, and never get out of it till from thence 
you shall be called to glory. O I could say a thousand 
things concerning this more than celestial valley. The 
air is so salubrious, the ground so fertile, the fruit so 
wholesome ; while from the branches of every tree the 
voices of prayer and praise are heard in delightful con- 
cert with each other. While living in this valley, no 
weapon that is formed against us shall prosper, as all 
the fiery darts of the devil are sure to pass over our 
heads, since the enemy of souls cannot shoot low enough 
to reach us to our hurt. Take this hint from a very 
old man, just putting off his harness while you are just 
putting it on." 

On Thursday, June 2nd, the appearance of the 
wound on Mr. Rowland Hill's leg being rather more 
favourable, he left London for Leamington, and, as he 
went by easy stages, he found himself able to preach 
once on the Sunday. The unsettled state of his affairs 
in that place caused him considerable excitement, and 
brought on a return of the inflammatory symptoms. 
Still he would preach on the Tuesday evening; the 
consequence of which was, an alarming increase of his 
sufferings, and many days' confinement to his room. 
Towards the end of the month, however, he rallied 
beyond all expectation, and was able to preach on 
Sunday, July 3, to a most crowded congregation at 



M)'. HilVs recovery. 



389 



Stratford-upon-Avon. From Stratford he went to 
Cheltenham, and preached there on the following 
Tuesday, with uncommon power and animation. He 
arrived at Wotton on the Wednesday, and was well 
enough to undertake oue sermon on Sunday. Con- 
tinual returns, however, of unpleasant appearances in 
his leg rendered the remainder of the autumn very 
trying. Towards the end of it he went to Leaming- 
ton, where, by the blessing of God on the kind atten- 
tion of a skilful surgeon, he rapidly recovered, and 
returned to Surry Chapel late in the winter. The con- 
finement he had undergone in the year 1831 tended 
very much to v/eaken his aged frame, and there were 
many visible signs in his constitution that nature was 
giving way. Still his mental faculties were perfectly 
unimpaired, and he manifested all the perspicuity, 
vigour, and imagination of youth. A letter to Mr. 
Jones contains his own description of his feelings in 
the early part of 1832. 

MY DEAR BROTHER JONES, Surry Chapel, Feb. 6th, 1832. 

Thanks for your letter : I am happy that 
Divine success seems to attend the ministry of the word 
among you. As to myself, my strength is so far de- 
parted from me, that the morning service in this place 
is as much as ever I can sustain. Though we are 
forbidden to take any thought for the morrow, yet I 
have many an anxious thought how I should be able 
to perform the duties of the Wotton service, without 
some extra aid. I feel that I am soon to go the way 
of all flesh : while the outward man is now so rapidly 
on the decay, my prayer is, that the inward man may 
be renewed day by day. As it is now highly neces- 
sary that I should have some one constantly with me. 



390 



Letter to Mr. Jones. 



to preach when I feel unable, I should like to know 

what your plans are for the ensuing summer. 

* * * * ^ * 

I am extremely sorry to hear of the indisposition of 

; her life is valuable, for the sake of her family, 

but you give me hopes that the sickness is not unto 
death ; may it be to the glory of God. O that I could 
feel a more lively hope in the good things I have been 
preaching so long ; most fully would I wish to say, 
" when heart and flesh fail me, God is the strength of 
my heart, and my portion for evermore." I have sent 
you some books : I have been pretty well drained in 
furnishing the library at Leamington. 

7^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

With kindest remembrances to Mr. and Mrs. Long, 
and all inquiring friends, from theirs and 

Yours very sincerely, 

Rowland Hill. 

I also received a letter from him, in which he 
expresses the same sense of his bodily decay, and 
alludes to his anxiety concerning the future pastor of 
his London flock. 

Surry Chapel Hoiise^ 
MY DEAR SIDNEY, March 8th, 1832. 

Why have I been so long in answering your 
letter on the offer of your visit to London ? It is on 
account of the rapid debility I daily feel from declining 
years ; though, perhaps, one cause may be through the 
necessity of being almost at times bed-ridden, from 
the injury received upon my shin-bone during the last 
public meetings in May. And though I cannot say 
that I have any particular disease, yet I am so far 



Letter to the author. 



391 



enfeebled, that even one sermon on a Sabbath-clay is 
quite as much as can be accomplished by me. In 
short, I am now breaking apace, and O that I could 
but feel that, as the outward man is decaying, the 
inward man is renewed day by day ! 

I have made up my mind to leave London before 
the bustle of our different religious meetings in May : 
if, however, you and yours wish to come to town pre- 
viously, I shall be happy to receive you, so far as 
strength and ability will permit. I mention the time 
I design to go out of town, that you may make your 
arrangements accordingly, and not be prevented visiting 
London at an earlier date, if that will be convenient 
for you. 

Though I cannot say with Paul, the care of all the 
churches is upon me, yet O how happy should I be if 
this important station in particular were but blest with 
that minister, of a free, generous, o]3en-hearted turn of 
mind, who would be my affectionate helpmate in my 
fast-declining days : but, alas ! where is such a one to 
be found ? How grievous, that the late revival in the 
church has been disfigured by the vain imaginations 
of many who scarcely know what they are next to 
believe. If any such were willing to come amongst us, 
by taking more liberty than the church allows, I 
should be afraid to trust them ; while too many Dis- 
senters are so far stiffened on their side the question, 
as to be afraid to submit to the apostle's advice, and to 
become all things to all men, that they may win the 
more to Christ. 

^- * ^ ^ * -5^ 

As long as I live, and afterwards, I trust the pulpit 
will be equally open to all who preach the pure and 
simple gospel of Christ, but not intermixed with the 



392 Reformation without Demolition. 

whim-whams of the present clay. The fiery materials 
that compose the new opposition Bible Society I find 
are quarrelling among themselves, and no wonder at 
it, while the new gang of prophesiers are amongst the 
most active of its supporters. Such sort of phosphorus 
materials will be sure to ignite among themselves. O 
that you and I may abide by that sure word of pro- 
phecy, to which we do well to resort, instructed by the 
Holy Ghost in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. 
I may further add, that as the tithe system, pluralities, 
and other church evils, whether real or supposed, are 
at present under investigation, some of our more 
bigoted rules may be brought under consideration. 
Neither in England nor in Scotland do we find such 
principles upheld as there formerly were. Surely a 
reformation of that which is wrong may be effected 
without a demolition of that which is right. 

Love to you both. 

I am yours very affectionately, 

Rowland Hill. 

Mr. Hill did not leave London till May 7, and I had 
the pleasure of spending the w^eek previous to his 
departure with him. I found him in excellent general 
health, but much weaker than I had ever before seen 
him, yet deprived of none of the clearness or vivacity 
of his intellect. There was a continual variation in 
his feelings, and though generally more comfortable 
than might have been expected, he was occasionally 
oppressed with a most trying languor. " Yesterday," 
he says, when writing to Mr. Broadley Wilson, " was 
one of my languid days. I feel as though I had got 
to the bottom of the Hill Difficulty : O that I was 



Mr. HilVs increasing debility. 



393 



better acquainted with the Valley of Humiliation, as I 
am very sure I must soon enter the Valley of the 
Shadow of Death. O that I may be taught that plea- 
sant song more perfectly, ' yea, though I walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, 
for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they com- 
fort me.' " God keeps the real Christian humble to the 
end, that he may be brought to lean on the only true 
support in the dark vale through which he must pass 
into eternity ; a truth beautifully exemplified in the last 
days of Mr. Hill. His faith never failed, but it was 
unmingled with self-confidence ; he trusted the stability 
of his anchor, and knew the firmness of the rock, 
fearing only frailty in the vessel. Taught from on high, 
he had learnt the plague of his own heart, as is evident 
from the following passage in a letter to Mr. Wilson : 
— " I feel myself increasingly the old man, yet I have 
reason to be thankful that I have no other disease than 
that which old age naturally brings with it. My course 
I am sure now must soon be finished. O that grace 
may be given me to lay down this life with holy tran- 
quillity and joy ; but O this corrupted heart, how it 
interrupts our peace and joy even to the last." Like 
the great Henry, Mr. Hill wished to carry his repent- 
ance to the gates of heaven. 

Notwithstanding his debility, Mr. Rowland Hill felt 
a strong inclination to make an effort to attend the 
meeting of the Bible Society in 1832, from which he 
was only prevented by the wetness of the day. " So, 
Sidney," he said to me on my return, " you have had, 
I hear, a peaceful day — I am thankful indeed for that, 
though I believe it was as well I did not go ; it would 
have been too much for me." The excellent spirit of 
candour displayed on that occasion by IMr. Gerard 



394 



My last visit to Mr. Hill. 



Noel, and the happy restoration of unity and peace, 
will long dwell in the memories of those who rejoiced 
to welcome among them once more a minister so 
justly valued and beloved. Venerable as the Bible 
Society has long appeared, it has become more than 
ever an object of our admiration, from the dignity of 
its triumph over opponents from without and divisions 
within. 

Lest he should be exhausted by the bustle of the 
other meetings, Mr. Hill retired to Leamington, and 
afterwards went to Wotton, where, in the month of 
August, Mrs. Sidney and I visited him for the last 
time. On our arrival, I found that he had engaged 
the pulpit of the church for me, and that he intended 
to shut up his own chapel on the afternoons of the two 
Sundays we were to pass with him. He was extremely 
feeble, and was evidently breaking, but seemed gene- 
rally revived by preaching. One Sunday morning he 
said to Mr. Jones—" You must preach this morning ; 
I feel good for nothing," " No, no, sir," he replied. I 
ventured to say, " I hope you will, Mr. Jones." He 
smiled, and said — " I would readily if I did not think 
a sermon would do Mr. Hill good, and you will see it 
will." Accordingly, Mr. Hill preached himself, and, 
as I heard on my return from church, with entire for- 
getfulness of his debility. His text was, 7^ken Manas- 
seli hiew the LiOrd, 2 Chron. xxxiii, 13 ; and he spoke 
for more than an hour ! In the morning I thought 
him utterly unequal to the task of addressing his 
people, but in the afternoon he was full of animation. 
" There, sir," said Mr. J ones, " I told you preaching 
would cure you ;" to which he answered good humour- 
edly, " I believe you were right, you cunning Welsh- 
man." He next turned to me and said—" Sidney, I 



My last visit to Mr. Hill. 



395 



wish your church rules would let you preach for us 
this evening." " Sir," I replied, " I am very Avell con- 
tented to obey them as they are." " Ah ! " he ex- 
claimed, "good old Mr. Berridge used to give notice 
(and here he imitated his voice and manner) * Mr. 
Gwinnapp will preach upon my horseblock this even- 
ing ; I wish I could ask him to preach in the church.' " 
Mr. Gwinnapp was one of Mr. Berridge's favorite 
coadjutors dmung Mr. Hill's residence at Cambridge, 
and was uncle to the truly pious lady of John Broadley 
Wilson, Esq. He was much esteemed by the late 
admirable Mr. Walker, of Truro, and prayed with him 
during his dying illness. 

On the last day I ever spent with my venerable and 
affectionate guardian, I was invited to preach at a 
neighbouring village in the morning. Though he had 
been to hear me the previous day, when I took the 
weekly lecture in the church at Wotton, his kind par- 
tiality induced him to go again. I never saw him. 
afterwards in a place of worship ; but the solemn and 
devotional feeling he then manifested has left an in- 
delible impression on my mind. He made the responses 
of the liturgy in a subdued but feeling tone, lifting up 
his hand occasionally, and laying a natural and appro- 
priate emphasis on such portions of the prayers, as 
more particularly seemed to contain petitions for the 
blessings he most needed. Numbers of his people 
were present ; and it was most affecting to see the 
manner in which they crowded round him as he left 
the church, pressing to shake him by the hand, and to 
show him every possible token of their love. As we 
were to go away early the following morning, I was 
desirous to have taken leave of Mr. Hill that night, 
but he said, " No, I shall see you to-morrow;" and 



393 



The parting scene. 



accordingly, soon after seven o'clock, to our surprise, 
he made his appearance. On my regretting the exer- 
tions he had made, he replied, " Never mind, I shall 
sleep all the better to-night for my early rising ; I 
wished to see the last of you/' He sat down in a 
chair in the dining-room, apparently lost in thought, 
and when I took him by the hand at parting, he could 
scarcely articulate " God bless you both ! I shall see 
you in town in the spring, if I live so long ; but I feel 
that I have but a short season longer left me here." 
This was my final interview with him, who had for 
years acted towards me with the affection of a parent. 

Mr. Rowland Hill's increasing weakness perpetually 
reminded him that his time was short, and allusions to 
his death constantly pervaded his conversation and 
letters. He remarked, when writing to a friend, " As 
to my mind, I only wish to commend myself to the 
blessing of Him, who alone can preserve us in our 
solemn exit from this world of woe." He further con- 
tinues — " We need not fear sickness or death, when 
once we can confidently say by faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, death is swallowed up in victory. Alas ! for 
me, one sermon on the Sabbath, and one in the week, 
is as much as I can accomplish. This is being brought 
to short commons, when compared with what, in the 
former part of my life, I have been accustomed to per- 
form." Mr. Hill's inability to work was the only 
source of his disquietude : his lamp was still full of 
oil, but the waning of the flame foretold that it would 
soon cease to burn. 

In the autumn of 1832 he was invited to preach in 
the church at Wallingford, once served by his old 
friend Mr. Pentycross. He had been there in 1831, 
and was now urged to return, and was offered as 



Letter to the Rev. J. La^igley. 



397 



an additional attraction, other pulpits in adjacent 
churches. Mr. Langley, the rector of St. Mary's, 
Wallingford, in a communication he obligingly sent 
me, says, " Mr. Hill could have had five or six 
churches in this neighbourhood, so completely had 
prejudice worn away ; and it was his rule when he 
could get the church, never to preach in a meeting- 
house. In 1831, when he preached for me, he 
preached for a clerical brother at Woodburn, Bucks." 
The following letter is Mr. Hill's reply to Mr. Lang- 
ley's invitation to W allingford : — 

MY DEAR SIR, Wotion-under-edffe, Nov. Uth, 1832. 

No wonder that a man in his 89th year 
should, from dimness of sight, be obliged to write by 
dictation. You have my affectionate thanks for your 
kind invitation to your house and pulpit : Providence, 
however, seems to direct me another way. Leaming- 
ton Spa, though a very growing place, has till of late 
been in a very dead state respecting the means of 
grace. By the kind providence of God, I have been 
enabled to purchase for them a chapel, in which, 
having established our liturgic service, many have 
been induced to hear the word of life. 

It therefore seems to be my duty to go somewhat out 
of my way to London, in order that I may nurse up 
that infant cause. Be assured I otherwise should have 
been glad to have paid Wallingford another visit, and, 
had strength been granted, to have preached in other 
churches : for I must say of the establishment, as 
Cowper said of the state, 

England ! with all thy faults I love thee still ; 



398 



Letter to the Rev. J. Langley. 



though I have my fears lest the present talk of a 
reformation of some abuses will prove of no effect, 
w^hile some outward amendments may take place, and 
she internally not be the better for it. This can only 
be accomplished by the sending forth of such spiritual 
ministers as are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost 
to take upon them that office of administration. 

I hope you have accepted the invitation to preach 
the annual sermon for our Catholic Missionary Society, 
it being willing to send forth ministers of any Pro* 
testant denomination, who are capable of holding forth 
the word of life to perishing sinners. If you have no 
better accommodations when you come to London in 
May next (though it seems presumptuous in me to 
talk of what I should like to do six months hence) I 
should be heartily glad to give you and Mrs. Langley 
bed and board at my house ; and if you choose to fol- 
low the same example as your predecessor, Mr. Pen- 
ty cross, you shall be heartily welcome to my pulpit 
also. Though I do not wish to see these walls of 
separation entirely demolished, yet I should be heartily 
glad if they were so far lowered, as that we could 
come nearer to shake hands with each other. Perhaps 
you may live to see better days in this respect, though 
I cannot, as I feel the time of my departure is just at 
hand. 

And when I'm to die, 
Receive me, I'll cry ; 
For J esus hath loved me, I cannot tell why. 

With kindest regards to Mrs. Langley, believe me to be, 

Most sincerely and affectionately yours. 

Rev. John Langley, Rowland Hill. 

Rector of St. Mary's, Wallingford. 



Old Bigotry. 



399 



I have not met with a letter more characteristic of 
Mr. Rowland Hill than this : his love for the church, 
his missionary principles, his desire to obtain clerical 
aid in Snrry Chapel, and the feeling with which he 
anticipated his decease, are all embodied in it. The 
lines quoted were perpetually on his lips for nearly a 
year before he died ; and when he came to the last 
words, he would repeat them with a strong emphasis 
— " No, indeed, / cannot tell why — every sinner saved 
is a mysterious monument of redeeming love." With 
regard to the walls of separation between different 
orders of Christians, he did not wish such partitions 
destroyed, but only lowered that we may shake 
hands a little easier over them," especially, as he 
would have willingly added, if old Bigotry, who kept 
parties close prisoners within these inclosures, was but 
dead and buried. In one of the first sermons preached 
for the London Missionary Society, Dr. Bogue, eyeing 
with delight the mixed congregation, exclaimed, " Be- 
hold us here assembled with one accord to attend the 
funeral of old Bigotry,'' which caused Mr. Hill to 
write an epitaph upon her, beginning 

Here lies old Bigotry, abhorrM 
By all who love our common Lord. 

If, however, old Bigotry did die on that occasion, 
Mr. Hill seemed to think she had been succeeded, to 
her heart's content, by Party Spirit, This may be 
gathered from the following letter to me 

MY DEAR SIDNEY, Leamingion Spa, Nov. 24, 1832. 

I understand you wish to know how I am, 
and as I am writing to Lord Hill, I enclose this note 
to tell you where I am, and that I hope to be in Lon- 
don by the latter end of next month as I 



400 



Parti/ spirit. 



am nearly worn down, I find it will be necessary to 
have an assistant . Though I have no par- 

ticular disease, yet the lassitude of old age will not let 
me do the things that I would. I hope some good is 
doing in this place; but after all my efforts to establish 
a place of worship, as similar to the church as cir- 
cumstances will admit, I find the high church party 
are by no means content with it. They talk, there- 
fore, of building for themselves ; and as I have had 
trouble enough from rigid Dissenters, it Seems I am to 
expect a similar trial from the very opposite quarter. 
High and low church sectarianism seems to be the 
order of the day: we are much more busy in contend- 
ing for parties than for principles, I hear perpetually 
that there is as much whimsicality and defectiveness 
among your church party as there can be bigotry 
among the Dissenters. With kind love to Mrs. Sidney, 
I remain, 

Yours sincerely, 

Rowland Hill. 

When Mr. Hill expressed his disappointment, that 
though he came " as near the church as possible," he 
could not satisfy her members, he ought to have re- 
flected, that he as much dissented from her discipline, 
as others do from the forms or doctrines prescribed 
by her laws ; and that the clergy were quite as much 
justified in rigidly maintaining their order as he could 
possibly be in defending his own system. That party- 
spirit, however, is dividing and weakening the Christian 
world is a fact as lamentable as it is undeniable ; 
and results in a great measure, from a want of due 
impression as to our accountableness for the moral 
discipline of our understandings. In the control of 



Solemn maimer of Mr. Hill. 



401 



our bodily actions, we refrain from our inclinations for 
the sake of reaping an ultimate benefit ; but as respects 
our reason, we are too apt to do as ice like, and will 
not give up a single particle of prejudice or opinion to 
promote a wider union. New parties, new societies, 
are formed in an instant, and as quickly deserted again 
by persons who either, on cooler reflection, see their 
error, or with all the impetuosity of an unbridled 
imagination, spurred on by enthusiasm, rush into the 
wilds of fanaticism. A man, also, is more frequently 
judged of, in these days, by the party he belongs to, and 
by what particular things he admits or abstains from, 
than by the general tenor of his daily life ; and, what 
is more than all to be deplored, an angry spirit is 
suffered to expel from the heart brotherly love and 
forbearance. These evils were justly deplored by 
Mr. Rowland Hill, as evidences of a lack of genuine 
Christianity. True faith, like the dove sent forth by 
Noah, may for a season hover over the waters without 
finding a resting-place, but will always return to the 
ark, bearing the olive branch of peace and love. 

During the last eighteen months, or thereabouts, 
of Mr. Hill's life, he engaged in almost every cause 
to which he was attached, with the impression that 
it would probably be the last effort he should make 
for it. His friend, Mr. George Clayton, in a letter 
to me, thus strikingly depicted his manner and 
feelings on one of these occasions : — " The last 
time he occupied my pulpit at Walworth, when he 
preached excellently for an hour, on behalf of a cha- 
ritable institution (it was in the winter twelve-month 
before his death), he retired to the vestry after 
service, under feelings of great and manifest ex- 
hausture. There he remained till every individual, 

2 D 



402 SQlemn manner of Mr. Hill, 

save the pew-openers, his servant, and myself, had 
left the place. At length, he seemed with some re- 
luctance to have summoned energy enough to take his 
departure, intimating that it was, in all probability, 
the last time he should preach in Walworth. Charles^ 
went before to open the carriage door — the pew- 
openers remained in the vestry. I offered my arm, 
which he declined, and then followed him as he passed 
down the aisle of the chapel. The lights were nearly 
extinguished, the silence was profound ; nothing, in- 
deed, was heard but the slow majestic tread of his own 
footsteps, when, in an under tone, he thus soliloquized, 

' And when I'm to die,® 

Receive me, I'll cry. 
For Jesus hath loved me, I cannot tell why ; 

But this I can find. 

We two are so join'd. 
That he'll not be in glory and leave me behind.' 

To my heart this was a scene of unequalled solemnity, 
nor can I ever recur to it without a revival of that 
hallowed, sacred, shuddering sympathy which it ori- 
ginally awakened." This description is not over- 
wrought ; no man could witness Mr. Hill's manner, 
when he contemplated his departure, without an im- 
pression which probably will never be obliterated from 
his memory. 

^ Mr. Hill's servant. 
Some objections have been made to these lines so often used by Mr. Hill ; but 
though, as read by most persons, they would appear to be of too jingling a nature 
for the truths they contain, yet when repeated by my aged relative, they produced 
the effect upon those who heard him that Mr. Clayton describes. They were con- 
stantly on his lips, because by them he gave utterance to his feelings of entire re- 
liance on Christ, with a sense of his undeserved love, and a consciousness of that 
spiritual union v/ith him by faith which is the believer's truest consolation. As a 
composition, it would be in vain to defend them, and I, for one, most sincerely wish 
these sentiments had been expressed in a manner more suitable to their dignity. 



403 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Christian Sabbath, 

One of the last acts of Mr. Rowland Hill was to 
publish, in the Leamington Spa Courie7\ an exhortation 
to the due observance of the Christian Sabbath. This 
was attacked, in a letter to the editor by a person 
signing himself " Oliver," who called it " a sermon 
in a newspaper," which he said was " certainly a 
rarity," and added, that " if an individual will preach 
in a newspaper instead of in a pulpit, he must expect 
to be answered." The writer admitted that the word 
Sabbath signifies rest from labour, and that the com- 
mand requires it to be kept holy, but exclaimed against 
" a puritanical and pharisaical observance of the day," 
or " a temporary imprisonment and a rueful visage." 
" The man of business," he also observed, " the 
artizan, the labourer, who is necessarily engaged six 
days, would find the seventh so irksome, were he to 
venture on the course advocated in your correspondent's 
letter, that the day of rest would no longer be con- 
sidered a blessing." To these observations Mr. Hill 
replied, in a letter dated Surry Chapel, Jan. 7, 1833, 
and assured Mr. Oliver that his face was " not a whit 
longer than his own, and that he was ready to admit 
that an innocent walk in the open air with a serious 
friend, engaged in some proper Sunday talk, may be 
as conducive to real edification, as being shut up in 
some gloomy habitation." He concluded by placing 
the devotion of a Christian, and his keeping the 
Sabbath-day, upon other and truly scriptural grounds, 

2 D 2 



404 Christian S abba tit. Spirit of Devotio7i. 

calling them " the ecmj practice of such as are made 
partakers of a divine nature, and are renewed in the 
spirit of their minds." Strict observance of the 
Sabbath was forced on the Jews by severe denuncia- 
tions and appalling penalties ; but under our milder 
dispensation, all religious duties, though not less bind- 
ing on that account, partake of the nature of piivilege. 
These are viewed by regenerate men, not as hard and 
uncongenial requirements, but as spiritual pleasures ; 
the law no longer appears on tablets of stone, but 
written on the hearts of believers, insures obedience, 
not to its letter by penalties, so much as to its spirit 
by love. 

Mr. Hill used to say the very sunshine, upon the 
day when he was called to the holy privilege of serving 
his God, seemed more genial to him than at any other 
time : he never thought of the punishment to be 
inflicted for neglect of Sabbath duties, but was wrapt 
up in holy relish of their sweetness. That wisely 
regulated laws should enforce respect to the Sabbath is 
honourable to every Christian nation ; but observance 
of Sabbatic rest, to be acceptable to God and truly 
profitable to man, must come from a heart changed 
and sanctified by grace. True obedience proceeds from 
the affections ; and, therefore, Isaiah not only requires 
of the Jews external observance, but to call the 
Sahhath a delight} Never did any individual more 
strongly evince this feeling than Mr. Rowland Hill, 
and they who spent a Sunday in his company were 
always much struck with his manner and appearance, 
as indicative of a most exalted state of piety, and a 
serene and heavenly pleasure in the worship of God. 



' Isaiah, Iviii, 13. 



Present from the ladies of Suri'y Chapel, 405 



He used sometimes to ejaculate, quoting his own 
lines, 

O for the grace to live to Thee, 
What can an angel wish for more ? 
Dear Saviour, come and let me be 
The subject of this mighty power. 

A quotation also from one of the easy rhyming 
exercises with which he has been before described as 
beguiling those hours that dimness of sight would 
have otherwise rendered tedious, will shew how 
earnestly he desired a sense of growing devotion to 
God and estrangement from the world. 

[Shall I] not let that bubble go, 
The world, and all things here below. 
While in my Saviour God I find, 
More than ten thousand worlds combin'd ? 

To glorify my Saviour's name, 
Henceforth be all my end and aim, 
Let all the world be gone from me, 
If Thou my portion, Lord, wilt be. 

No more the little charms of earth 
Can feast the soul of heavenly birth ; 
Nor richer joys can angels know 
Than love divine in saints below. 

The increasing languor and debility of old age pre- 
vented Mr. Hill, in the spring of 1833, from engaging 
to preach, except once on the Sunday in Surry Chapel, 
and he was obliged to be supported by an elevated and 
not very easy seat in the pulpit. The ladies of his 
congregation, observing with regret that he appeared 
vmcomfortable, resolved to present him with such a 
chair as would obviate all the inconvenience he had 
long suffered. This they sent him with an appropriate 
and respectful letter, to which he returned the following 
reply :— 



406 



Letter to the ladies of Surry Chapel. 



February, loth, 1833. 
MY VERY DEAR AND AFFECTIONATE FRIENDS, 

I cannot sufficiently express the warmth of 
niy gratitude for your affectionate present of such a 
commodious chair for the pulpit, especially as it is a 
proof of the very kind attention, manifested by some 
of the most honourable and respectable of the female 
part of the congregation assembling in Surry Chapel. 

As I cannot expect long to occupy the very comfort- 
able accommodation you have provided for me, may I 
therefore entreat you to address the Great Head of 
the Church, that he wovild send you such helps and 
ministers as shall completely outshine the dwindling 
taper, whose physical strength is now almost exhausted, 
though not his affectionate regards to a congregation 
who have always manifested such love and esteem. 

Though I feel myself less than the least, and un- 
worthy of such kind attention, I still can most heartily 
subscribe myself, your willing servant in the Re- 
deemer's cause, 

Row^LAND Hill. 

Those of Mr. Hill's congregation who were more 
particularly favoured with his friendship, watched him 
as he drew near to the grave with all the solicitude of 
children for a parent. He had nothing to disturb his 
repose in extreme old age, but the occasional derange- 
ment of the somewhat imperfect machinery, by which 
his system was carried on in the several places of 
worship under his care. To this, particularly as respected 
Leamington, his letters constantly refer, and are chiefly 
short dictations on matters of business, and arrange- 
ments of his summer plans, without any particular 



Mr. ILiWs wishes as to his siiccessoy. 407 

sentiments to require tlieir introduction into these 
pages. Indeed, all his letters were written amidst the 
hurry and interruptions of his numerous engagements, 
which accounts for their unstudied and often careless 
style. In those I received from him a few weeks be- 
fore his death, he alludes chiefly to his often repeated 
wish to be succeeded by a clergyman at Surry Chapel, 
In one of them, written to say that he was commis- 
soned, by the patrons of a church likely to become 
vacant in a large and populous district, to inquire if I 
would accept it, he observes — " I should be glad to get 
you to stop short, and be minister of Surry Chapel." 
He remained, however, stedfast in his determination 
to keep it open on what he called his broad pri?i- 
ciple; and this was quite as much the result of a sense 
of honour as of inclination, as may be collected from 
the conversation with Mr. CoUison already alluded to. 
Three times, shortly before his death, I received com- 
munications from him on this subject ; the second of 
which, contained in a letter announcing the intention 
of the clergyman of the church just mentioned not to 
resign his situation, was in these terms : — " I have no 
other preferment to offer you but that of Surry Chapel, 
but as we cannot put ourselves under the management 
of the Established Church I must say nothing on that 
head." Mr. Hill used freely to allow, that as a useful 
and commanding post, the church had no equal ; but 
he considered that even this might be rendered more 
efficient, without any violation of principle ; and espe- 
cially by giving power to the clergy to receive assist- 
ance from ministers of certain other orthodox Protestant 
denominations admitted to their pulpit as visitors. 

Some such concessions, wisely regulated and judi- 
ciously used, would perhaps tend rather to increase 



408 



Mv. HiWs wishes as to his successor. 



than diminish the stability of our position ; but the 
great evil to be deplored in the present day is, that 
men, because the church is not perfect according to 
their views, quit it altogether. Every church made up 
of fallible human beings must necessarily be a mixture 
of flesh and spirit ; but to make defects an excuse for 
irregularities or separation is contrary to the spirit and 
tenor of Scripture, which rather enjoins us to correct 
than to forsake. Where, in the midst of all the in- 
vectives of the Apostle against the Church of Corinth, 
is there a single word to be found about withdrawing 
from it ; or when those of Asia are reproved, can any 
man discover a command to separate from them ? It 
has been asked, where was your church before the time 
of the Reformers ? The answer to this is obvious, and 
has often been given — where it is now. It was obscured 
by the Church of Rome, of which it never was an in- 
tegral member, like corn in the midst of a profusion of 
tares. Our reformers did not innovate, but reno^ 
vate, they did not institute, they only restored. The 
lapse of ages will necessarily render alterations of some 
kind essential in all human institutions, but it yet 
remains to be proved that any thing has been gained, 
either in spirituality or usefulness, by those who, ap- 
proving of our church's standard of doctrine, have 
deserted her because of some defects in her machinery, 
which can only be gradually accommodated to the 
changes of time. 

If Mr. Rowland Hill occasionally made remarks on 
what he called the stiffness of the church, he even more 
strongly censured the increasing narrow-mindedness he 
witnessed among many of the Dissenters ; and only a 
few weeks before his last illness jocularly proposed to 
advertise for " a wet nurse of the same denomination. 



Humourous proposal. Last letter to the author. 409 

in the family of a Dissenter to the hack-hotie, to take 
care of a child who was to be brought up to the same 
ivay of thinking' — but knowing the really excellent 
qualities of his heart, few persons were offended by his 
humour. In the postscript of the last letter I ever 
received from him he again alludes to his wish to be 
succeeded by a clergyman. The letter itself contains 
nothing of any moment, but it was his last to me, and 
it shows that even in his 89th year, the energies of a 
once indefatigable spirit were not quite exhausted. 

MY DEAR SIDNEY, Surry Chapel, March ith, 1833. 

I can now tell you my arrangements, that 
you may be able to make yours. I purpose, by the 
will of God, to leave this place on Tuesday, the 30th 

of April, for Dorking . .The next day I go to 

Brighton, to spend a fortnight or three weeks 

From the latter place I find I can cross the country to 
Oxford, and from thence to Leamington, stay there 
about a month, and then proceed to Wotton for the 
remainder of the summer ; at which I shall be happy 
to see you and yours as long as you can manage to 
stay. 

* * ^ * ^ * 

There your services in the church will be very accept- 
able, and probably useful 

I am yours, very sincerely, 

Rowland Hill. 

P.S could you but hear the voice 

pronouncing, " loose him and let him go," all these 
matters would be settled at once. 

I am induced to make this statement of Mr. Hill's 
wish respecting his successor, by the various reports 



410 



Duty of churchmen. 



which I have heard upon the subject. No doubt he 
could have found a man to occupy his place at his 
decease, with all the qualifications he desired, except 
episcopal ordination, among the many pious, liberal, 
and enlightened Dissenters of his acquaintance ; but he 
retained the fond hope, even to the last, that he should 
meet with a clergyman, as he styled it, " panting for 
more liberty." These, however, are not days in which 
the members of our church can complain of want of 
liberty, and surely the parochial clergy enjoy at least as 
much of the essentials of that blessing, as the ministers 
of any dissenting community. Assailed as our church 
now is, it becomes us to unite and put on our armour, 
remembering that our breastplate is righteousness, in 
which we must shine before men. The armies of 
Rome, by dazzling the eyes of their opponents with 
the splendour of their polished breast-plates, often 
awed them to surrender without drawing a sword ; — 
we hope the church is now polishing her harness, and 
that she will conquer rather by lustre than by strength. 
When Mr. Hill first became a preacher many slept 
upon their weapons, or woke only to thwart those who 
were willing to fight the battles of the Lord ; and in 
such a case, that zealous men should require a little 
more liberty to go forth in detachments, was excuseable 
amidst the difficulties of their times ; but after all, it 
is from our well-formed and disciplined ranks now 
brought into the field, that the final decisive victory 
will be gained. This opinion is not less warranted by 
Scripture than by reason, as is evident from the lan- 
guage of St. Paul, who writes to the Colossians,^ that 
he was with them in spirit, "joying and beholding 
their order and stedfastness of their faith in Christ ;" 



^ Col ii, 5, 



Mr. HilVs last sermon. 



411 



and it is worthy of remark how strikingly he connects 
(TTEpsuixcc, firmness, with tc&^k, orde7\ 

It is time, however, to pass on to the closing scene 
of the days of Mr. Rowland Hill. Though his in- 
creasing weakness plainly foretold that he must soon 
be taken from his people and his friends, yet he was 
removed at last in a more sudden manner than could 
have been anticipated. On Sunday, March 31, he 
preached, for the last time, on 1 Cor. ii, 7, 8, and felt 
so well that he engaged to preach again on the follow- 
ing Tuesday, to the teachers of the Southwark Sunday 
School Union, but he became so extremely languid on 
that day as to be obliged to request his assistant, 
Mr. Weight, to officiate for him. At the conclusion of 
a short sermon from this worthy minister, Mr. Hill 
ascended the pulpit, and delivered, with unusual fer- 
vour and animation, a brief and affectionate address, 
by which he was completely exhausted. Feeble as he 
was, he told those who heard him, he rejoiced still to 
feel his heart in the work ; and after urging them to 
dedicate their youth to the glory of God, he ended with 
invoking the divine blessing on their labours. This 
was his last effort : that day the doors of Surry Chapel 
closed on their devoted pastor for ever. Notwith- 
standing his strength was almost gone, he intended to 
preach again on Good Friday, and though at breakfast 
he complained of excessive languor, he would, had not 
Mr. Weight been present, have made an effort to occupy 
the pulpit on that day. He was prevailed on, however, 
not only to give up preaching, but to remain in the 
house during the morning service ; and about one 
o'clock he took an airing in his carriage towards Cam- 
berwell, but did not return so refreshed as was expected. 
Still he remained down stairs all day, and conversed as 



412 



Last illness. 



usual with persons who called to inquire after him. A 
surgeon, who came in during the evening, said that 
Mr. Hill's temporal arteries were distended, and 
threatened apoplexy ; but by judicious treatment these 
appearances were so far removed, that the next morn- 
ing he rose at his usual hour in good spirits, and 
breakfasted with apparent appetite. The day passed 
off comfortably, and in the evening he had the news- 
papers read to him according to custom, making no 
particular complaint. In fact, he thought of preaching 
on the Sunday, and had selected his text from 1 Pet. i, 3 ; 
but though not well enough to attempt a sermon, the 
whole day was spent by him in tolerable comfort, and 
he sat up till ten o'clock at night. On Easter Monday 
and Tuesday, the boys and girls, accompanied by their 
Sunday teachers, came as usual in procession to Surry 
Chapel ; but they were never more to hear the voice 
which had so often proclaimed to little children the in- 
vitations of a dying Saviour. Their devoted friend 
prayed earnestly in his family for the " young lambs" 
of the Redeemer's fold, watched their arrival from the 
window of his drawing-room, and listened to their 
voices, as they sung in assembled thousands, in his 
chapel, the last simple and touching hymns he wrote 
for them. On the first of these evenings he dictated 
to Mr. Weight a string of aphorisms, one of which is 
singularly descriptive of his own character — " He " 
(the pious minister) " will not consider his own feel- 
ings, but lay himself out for the universal good of his 
Saviour's cause : he will spend and be spent for his 
Redeemer, and will die harnessed as a good soldier of 
Jesus Christ." 

During the evening of Tuesday, Mr. Hill's servant, 
Charles, observed such an alteration in his master, as 



Last illness. 



413 



induced him to send to inform Lord Hill of his situa- 
tion. His lordship was unfortunately out of town, 
hut his nephew and aid-de-camp, Captain George Hill, 
immediately attended, bringing with him his uncle's 
physician, who, in common with the other medical 
men, was of opinion that nature was giving way, but 
that from great strength of constitution he might rally 
for a short time. These were but faint hopes not to 
be realised ; the hand of death was upon him. 

The same tone of humility and self-abasement which 
characterized this exalted Christian through life, was 
visible in his last moments. The dying lamp flared 
not forth the glittering flame of presumptuous as- 
surance, but shone steadily to the end with a bright 
yet lowly hope. Reviewing his past doctrines, he 
declared, " Were I to live my life over again, I would 
preach just the same:" — looking upwards to eternal 
glory, he cast himself into the dust, and only said, " I 
shall creep into heaven through some crevice in the 
doorT His view of his own personal interest in Christ 
seemed nearly lost at times, in a sublime contemplation 
of the Saviour's glory ; and his servant heard him cry 
out in the night. 

How soon will thy seat of judgment appear. 
Prepare me to meet, and welcome Thee there. 

Both when asleep and awake, his favorite lines, "And 
when I'm to die," &c. were constantly on his lips. 
Sometimes he repeated part of his own beautiful 
hymn — 

Gently, my Saviour, let me down 
To slumber in the arms of death ; 
I rest my soul on thee alone, 
E'en to my last expiring breath : 

This hymn was written by Mr. Hill for the comfort of a dying member of his 
Surry Chapel congregation, who received it a few hours before death. I found it 



414 



Last illness. 



and he was overheard saying to himself, " Eye hath 
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the 
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for 
them that love him." 

On the evening of the day before he died, Mr. Hill's 
mental aberrations were at times very painful : but 
when his mind did not wander, from the effects of 
disease, it was beautifully drawn towards heavenly 
objects. During one of the intervals of calm self- 

amongst his papers, in his own hand-writing, and I believe it never has been 
printed. It is called, 

THE PRAYER OF THE DYING CHRISTIAN. 

Gently, my Saviour, let me down 
To slumber in the arms of death ; 
I rest my soul on Thee alone, 
E'en till my last expiring breath. 

Death's dreadful sting has lost its power : 
A ransom'd sinner, sav'd by grace, 
Lives but to die, and die no more, 
Unveil'd to see thy blissful face. 

Soon will the storm of life be o'er. 
And I shall enter endless rest ; 
There shall I live to sin no more, 
And bless thy name for ever blest. 

Dear Saviour, let thy will be done ; 
Like yielding clay I humbly lie, 
May every murmuring thought be gone, 
Most peacefully resign'd to die. 

Bid me possess sweet peace within, 
Let child-like patience keep my heart ; 
Then shall I feel my heaven begin 
Before my spirit hence depart. 

Yes, and a brighter heaven still 
Awaits my soul through his rich grace, 
Who shall his word of truth reveal. 
Till call'd to sing his endless praise. 

Hasten thy chariot, God of love, 
And fetch me from this world of woe ; 
I long to reach those joys above, 
And bid farewell to all below. 

There shall my raptur'd spirit raise 
Still louder notes than angels sing ; 
High glories to Emmanuel's grace. 
My God, my Saviour, and my King. 



Last Uiness. 



415 



possession, he called for his servant, and desired him 
to read the Jifth chapter of the Second Epistle to the 
Corinthians ; at the fourth verse, he looked up and 
said, "Ah, Charles, we do not like to die!" — at the 
seventeenth verse, he exclaimed in a strong tone, " A 
7iew existence^ mind that — Ah, Charles, I shall soon 
leave you ! " 

The Rev. George Clayton was one of those who 
were admitted to Mr. Hill's room when he drew near 
his end, and from him I received this account of the 
last interview he had with his dying friend : " I was at 
his bedside within a few hours of his dissolution : it 
was truly an impressive scene. Lord Hill's physician 
was with him when I arrived, and remarked that 
nothing more could be attempted for the venerable 
patient, and the expected change must soon take place. 
Mr. Hill grasped my hand with much affection, and 
said, ' You have often seen me ill, and I recovered; but 
this is an irrecoverable complaint, I shall not get over 
it — it is a solemn thing to die. I have no rapturous 
joys, but peace — a good hope through grace- — all 
through grace.' The Rev. T. Jackson, who was in 
the chamber, observed, ' You would not give up the 
hope you have, sir, for all the world.' — ' No,' said he, 
^ not for ten thousand thousand worlds. Christ is every 
thing to a dying man — but I want to be perfectly holy 
— perfectly like my dear Lord — without holiness there 
is no such thing as getting to heaven." After this he 
roused himself, and protested, with a strong effort, 
against the evils and dangers of Antinomianism, when 
Mr. Clayton, finding him exhausted, offered up a short 
prayer, and retired. 

The last sign of sensibility he gave was an evidence 
that he understood, though unable to articulate, his 



416 



Last illness and death. 



favourite verses, And when Tm to die, 8^c., repeated 
to him by Mr. Weight. About twenty-five minutes 
before six on Thursday evening, April 11, his happy 
spirit was released from the bondage of mortality, 
without sign or groan, or any other evidence of the 
agony of a last struggle. Those about him could 
scarcely believe he was gone, so peaceful was his end 
— so gently, in answer to his own prayer, was he let 
down to slumber in the arms of death. 

One of the most beautiful casts I ever saw was 
taken of my excellent and venerable relative after his 
decease, by the well-known phrenologist Deville, the 
appearance of which indicated rather a balmy rest in 
slumber, than the painful fixedness of a corpse in death. 
The organs of his fine head were considered to be indi- 
cative of the prominent characteristics of his nature — 
benevolence, quickness of perception, strong attachment, 
firmness approaching to self-willedness, devotion to 
the truth, kindness to children, love of approbation, 
mirthfulness, attention to property, sense of justice. I 
was prevented by illness from seeing my dear guardian 
at the last, but this beautiful bust, in possession of the 
celebrated phrenologist to whom it belongs, made an 
indelible impression on my memory. 

As soon as the death of the venerable minister 
became known, all parties seemed to unite in doing 
honour to his memory. He was buried, at his own re- 
quest, beneath the pulpit of Surry Chapel, on Friday, 
April 19, and was followed to the grave both by clergy- 
men and dissenting ministers.* The funeral was ad- 

" One of these, Mr. Theophilus Jones, Mr. Hill's Wotton assistant so often 
mentioned in this work, came to London to attend the funeral while under the 
effects of a slight attack of influenza. The journey, and the excitement of the 
mournful scene increased it to such a degree, that he died in a few weeks after he 
had followed his venerable patron to the grave. 



Funerof. 



417 



mirably conducted, and all confusion prevented by 
excellent regulations. The vast congregation, nearly 
all in deep mourning, were admitted by tickets, and 
presented, as they filled the galleries hung with black 
drapery, a mournful contrast to the animating scenes 
witnessed in the same place for nearly half a cen- 
tury. The vicinity of the chapel exhibited every pos- 
sible token of respect : shops partially shut, private 
houses with closely drawn blinds, crowds in black, 
unable to gain admittance to the ceremony, showed 
that the last homage was being paid to a person of no 
ordinary popularity. Soon after eleven the solemn 
procession left the house, and as it entered the chapel, 
a dirge was played upon that fine-toned organ, whose 
notes had so long been sounds of gladness in the ears 
that now could hear no longer. Lord Hill attended 
as chief mourner, and was followed by those invited 
to be present at the ceremony. Dr. Collyer read the 
first part of the burial service, when a hymn was sung, 
the last verse of which was often on the lips of him 
they were committing to the tomb : 

When from the dust of death I rise, 
To take my mansion in the skies, 
E'en then shall this be all my plea, 
Jesus hath liv''d and died for we." 

The coflSn was next gently lowered into the grave, 
when the evident sensibility awakened in such a mul- 
titude, and the sobbing of such as were unable to 
refrain from audible expressions of their grief, pre- 
sented a scene which the lapse of many years will not 
efface from the memories of those who witnessed it. 
When the minister who read the conclusion of the 
service substituted the word father for that of brother, 
a simultaneous burst of grief seemed to escape from 

2 E 



418 



Funeral. 



the whole congregation. Those who had hitherto 
suppressed their emotions were unable longer to sub- 
due them, when touched with the tenderness of that 
deserved and endearing appellation. The moment 
when the body of one long beloved is committed as 
dust to dust, and ashes to ashes, is generally that in 
which sorrow, before successfully controlled, breaks 
forth from the recesses of the soul — the hollow sound 
of the coffin, when the earth is cast upon it, is ever the 
signal for an overflow of the accumulated flood of 
mental anguish. The power of that simple but touch- 
ing ceremony was never more fully evinced than on 
this day : they who had hitherto remained silent and 
resigned, now wept aloud. 

After a prayer from the Rev. George Clayton, fol- 
lowed by the singing of Luther's hymn, Mr. Jay 
ascended the pulpit to deliver a funeral sermon over 
the tomb of his departed friend. His text was, 
Zech. xi, 2, — Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen. 
The affecting service was concluded by a prayer from 
the Rev. George Collison. When all was over, many 
looked into the grave, and dropped a parting tear upon 
the coffin, in which the form they once loved to gaze 
upon now lay, silent and unseen, beneath the very spot 
whence he had so long proclaimed the mercies and 
terrors of the Lord. His people can now behold his 
face no more in the flesh, but they will see him again 
on that day when preachers and hearers shall render 
up their separate accounts before the judgment-seat of 
Christ. " There he lies," said Mr. Jay, pointing to 
the grave over which he was preaching — Who lies ? 
— The preacher once, the ivitness now." 

The will of Mr. Rowland Hill was an object of 
much curiosity at the time of his death ; but the only 



His laborious life. 



419 



bequest^ necessary to be mentioned here is, that the 
residue of his property was left to the Village Itine- 
rancy, including, with certain deductions, his chapels 
and their appurtenances at Wotton and Leamington.^ 

Thus ended the earthly pilgrimage of one of the most 
devoted messengers of gospel truth that ever declared 
the way of mercy to mankind. It may be truly said 
of him, that from the early age of boyhood, to the 
hoary hairs of one approaching his ninetieth year, he 
had never spent a day, except confined by sickness, with- 
out some effort to promote the cause of his Redeemer, 
and this with no less energy when frowned on by his 
family and despised by the world, than when he lived 
amidst the kindest attentions from relations, and 
basked in the exhilarating beams of an unequalled po- 
pularity. Though he was surrounded by many enemies 
in the early part of his career, not one of them could 
discover a stain in his character ; and notwithstanding 
the fire of his eager spirit, the occasional haste with 
which he acted, and the eccentric course in which he 
moved, he has left behind him not only a lasting fame 
for unwearied diligence, undaunted resolution, and 
extraordinary success, but that which alone can give 
weight to the instructions of any minister, an unsullied 
reputation. "V^Hiat is a minister without a cliaracter ? 
was his frequent inquiiy. His was not only unspotted, 
but unsuspected ; and whenever a cloud passed across 
his sun, no one doubted that the light was still un- 
mingled with impurity, though obscured for an instant. 

^ It may, however, be noticed, that always the kindest and most affectionate of 
masters while he lived, he did not forget a liberal provision for his faithful servants. 

^ At the death of Mr. Hill, the numerous societies he supported drew up reso- 
lutions expressive of their respect to his memory. Amongst others, the Village 
Itinerancy put forth a long and able testimony to his character and usefulness, and 
it is only justice to them to add, before they were informed of his bequest. 

2 E 2 



420 



His constste)if character. 



It was the study of Mr. HilVs entire life to maintain 
an untarnished honour, and it was his nature too ; he 
did not shine in public with a light extinguished in 
private, but was himself the example of his own pre- 
cepts. Once he was called to occupy the pulpit of a 
person whose character was, alas! not altogether im- 
maculate, and who worried him with apologies because 
he could not offer him a cassock. " Sir," said Mr. 
Hill, who could not disguise his sentiments, " I can 
preach without my cassock, but not without my cha- 
racter — character is of immense importance, sir, to a 
preacher of God's holy gospel." 

Mr. Hill never lost an opportunity of urging on 
young ministers the necessity of a spotless reputation. 
He was, on some particular occasion, addressing a num- 
ber of candidates for the sacred office, and in adverting to 
this, his constant theme, said — " I will tell you a story. 
A barber having amassed a comfortable independence, 
retired to his native place, where he became a preacher 
in a small chapel. Another person from the same village, 
being similarly fortunate, settled there also, and attended 
the ministry of the barber. Wanting a new wig, he said 
to his pastor, ' You might as well make it for me,' to 
which he assented. The wig was sent home badly 
made, but charged at nearly double the usual price! 
The good man said nothing, but when anything par- 
ticularly profitable escaped the lips of the preacher, he 
observed to himself, 'Excellent — but ok! the wig!'' 
When the barber prayed with apparent unction, he 
also thought, 'This should touch my heart— but oh! 
the wig!' Now my dear young brethren, wherever 
you are placed, remember the wig!'' 

A consciousness of real virtue made him in- 
different to the remarks of his enemies. Having 



Anecdotes. Personal appearance, 421 

been sciuTilously attacked in one of the public 
journals, he was urged by a zealous friend, exas- 
perated against the writer, to bring a legal action in 
defence. To this the venerable servant of God replied, 
with calm, unruffled dignity — " I shall neither answer 
the libel, nor prosecute the writer, and that for two 
reasons — first, because, in attempting the former, I 
should probably be betrayed into unbecoming violence 
of temper and expression, to my own grief, and the 
wounding of my friends; and in the next place, I have 
learned by experience, that no man's character can he 
eventually injured hut hy his own acts'' 

He knew well how to seize the best opportunity for 
reproving culpable habits in his hearers. One of them, 
who, to his great annoyance, avoided coming to chapel 
in time for the prayers, and arrived only just soon 
enough to hear the sermon, complained to him of par- 
tiality in a magistrate. He gave him one of his most 
searching looks, and said with an emphasis and manner 
peculiar to himself, " Then, why do you not come to 
public worship in proper time to pray that God would 
grant all magistrates grace to execute justice and main- 
tain truth?" 

The person of Mr. Rowland Hill is well known to 
the public. He was rather above the middle height in 
stature, and when young was remarkably thin, though 
wonderfully strong and active. His countenance was 
expressive of the complexion of his mind, and the play 
upon his lips, and piercing look of his small grey eyes, 
denoted both intelligence and humour. When between 
fifty and sixty years of age, his fine upright figure, 
combined with a high-bred, gentleman-like deportment, 
caused him to be the subject of general admiration; 
and when the weight of eighty years rested on his 



m 



Doctrinal opinions. 



head, his erect form was not bowed down, nor was the 
vigour of his mind in the slightest degree impaired. A 
few years ago, a gentleman in a country town followed 
a crowd into a chapel, not the least knowing who was 
to be the preacher: on returning home, he said — "I 
have seen a man with such a commanding air as I 
never witnessed before — who can it be?" It was 
Mr. Rowland Hill; and this was the effect his appear- 
ance produced on all who saw him in his latter days; 
and as Johnson said of Burke, if any person had merely 
chanced to take shelter with him from a shower, he 
would have gone home and said, " I have seen an 
extraordinary man." 

In his theological opinions, Mr. Hill leaned towards 
the tenets of Calvin, but what is called Hyper-Calvinism 
he could not endure. In a system of doctrine he was 
the follower of no man, but drew his sermons fresh 
from a prayerful reading of the Bible, and happy would 
it be for all ministers if, in this respect, they imitated 
his example. By faith, and earnest entreaty for divine 
teaching, he let down his vessel into the wells of sal- 
vation, and the water came up clear, unpolluted by 
human traditions, unflavoured by dogmas, and unadul- 
terated by the muddy conceits of man's fancied disco- 
veries. He was for drawing together all the people of 
God wherever they could meet, and was willing to join 
in a universal communion with Christians of every 
name. When on one occasion he had preached in a 
chapel where none but baptized adults were admitted 
to the sacrament, he wished to have communicated with 
them, but he was told, respectfully, " You cannot sit 
down at our table" — he only replied calmly, " I thought 
it was the LorcVs table." 

That Mr, Hill was made the means of great useful- 



Danger of imitation. 



423 



ness, no person acquainted with his history can deny; 
nor can man dictate a line of action to those evi- 
dently raised up of God, in sluggish times, for the pur- 
pose of awakening the dormant energies of the church. 
The danger is, lest others should pursue, in days 
totally different from those in which he first appeared, 
a course which in the present state of things would be 
much more injurious than beneficial. No mode of 
religion can be arranged by our finite and imperfect 
faculties, so as to suit the composition of every mind, 
or meet the difficulties of every case; but if individuals 
are generally to prescribe for themselves, and apply 
their own remedies to particular portions of the system, 
they will soon pay dearly for their interference, by the 
derangement of the whole body. Were every soldier 
to fight with the weapons he thinks himself best skilled 
to use, or to occupy such a post as appears most advan- 
tageous to himself, it is evident that single and irre- 
gular instances of courage would but ill atone for the 
want of combined and uniform effect in an entire bat- 
talion. Had Mr. Hill confined himself for these last 
thirty years to the community of which by ordination 
he was a member, his talents as a preacher, his exalted 
character, and distinguished family connexions, would 
have opened to him a wide and most influential scope for 
his exertions, and he would have been spared numerous 
trials and embarrassments in which he was involved, 
from want of a well defined rule of action. His 
disinterestedness, true piety, fervent zeal, great suc- 
cess in conversions, the age in which he first became 
a preacher, and the peculiarities of his nature, will, 
however, form an apology for a career in which few 
would have the power, if they possessed the inclination 
to follow him. He that presumed to guide himself in 



424 



Waitings of Mr. Rowland Hill, 



a similar path, would, like Phaeton in the fable, when 
he ventured to drive the chariot of the sun, be precipi- 
tated speedily from his position, and become like him, 
in all but notoriety, 

Infelix currus auriga paterni. 

In one thing he may be safely followed — daily peni- 
tence before God ; and never was a more beautiful idea 
than that which he repeatedly thus expressed — " If I 
may be permitted to drop one tear, as I enter the 
portals of the city of my God, it will be at taking an 
eternal leave of that beloved and profitable companion. 
Repentance'' 

Mr. Rowland Hill was too much occupied by a per- 
petual round of preaching, and other active engage- 
ments, to devote much time to literary pursuits, or 
composition. He was a very fair scholar, and used 
sometimes jocularly to say, " I am thankful I am not 
obliged, when I quote a passage from the classics, to 
confess, like John Bunyan (dear honest old soul), the 
Latin I borrowed.'* In his controversial pamphlets 
he displayed great acuteness of reasoning, always seiz- 
ing upon, and exposing the weak points of his oppo- 
nents; but I am compelled to acknowledge that the 
shafts of his ridicule were often too keenly sharpened, 
and that his bow was strung too much after the 
fashion of the world. This, however, was an error 
into which many other good men have fallen, and 
which they, as well as my beloved relative, lamented 
in riper years and a maturer state of grace. His hymns 
and Token for Children, are delightful productions, 
worthy to be introduced into every Sunday school : his 
catechism also deserves to be better known. The 
Token for Children commences with a sermon to the 



Juvenile works. 



425 



young, which those who read it will acknowledge to 
be, for plainness of language and adaptation to the 
infant understanding, a model for such addresses. 
It contains excellent observations, mingled with simple 
and engaging anecdotes, one of which, as a sample of 
his attractive mode of writing for and speaking to 
children, I will introduce here. "As children love 
stories, I will tell you another. Walking through my 
field on a winter's morning, I met with a lamb, as I 
thought, dead ; but taking it up, I found it just alive ; 
the cruel mother had almost starved it to death. I 
put it into my bosom, and brought it to my house : 
there I rubbed its starved limbs, warmed it by the fire- 
side, and fed it with warm milk from the cow. Soon 
after the lamb revived : first, it feared me ; but after- 
wards it thoroughly loved me. As I mostly fed it 
with my own hand, so it followed me wherever I 
went, bleating after me, whenever it saw me, and was 
always happy when it could frisk around me, but 
never so pleased as when I would carry it in my arms. 
But you, dear children, have had more from your 
parents and friends than ever my lamb received from 
me ; what ungrateful hearts must yours be, if you do 
not love your parents and friends ten times better 
than ever my lamb loved me. And let me now remind 
you of a still better story. Jesus is a shepherd, the 
shepherd of souls ; and of him it is said, ' he carries 
the lambs in his bosom, and gently leads those that 
are with young.' If you desire to love Jesus, I dare 
say your parents will let you read that blessed book, 
the Bible, though good children alone wish for such a 
favour. There you will hear such things of the love of 
Christ to poor ruined sinners, as I hope will melt your 



426 Village Dialogues. 



eyes to tears and your hearts to love."^ That one 
whose element was in the highest regions of sublime 
and lofty thought, should thus descend into the very 
midst of the lambs of the fold, and rejoice to lead 
them to the gentle flow of the source of an eternal 
spring of living waters, and to the tenderest herbage of 
a gospel's greenest pastures, is surely an evidence of 
such love as none but new-born souls can enjoy, and 
will be considered as an atonement for any expressions 
of warmth or satirical invective, to which he gave vent 
in times of controversial excitement, and which no one 
more sincerely lamented than himself. 

The opinions of Mr. Ambrose Serle on the Warning 
to Professors, and the Village Dialogues, already given, 
preclude the necessity of my adding to them many 
remarks of my own. He wrote most of the Dialogues 
on separate slips of paper, after Mrs. Hill had retired 
for the night ; and I remember his once saying to me, 
when speaking of the pathetic portions of the work, 
" When I read them over 1 used to burst out a crying." 
There are few who could peruse unmoved his Pro- 
digal's Return, and Funeral of Mr. Merriman, descrip- 
tions true to nature, because drawn from the remem- 
brance of such events coming under his own observation ; 
and indeed almost every character portrayed in these 
volumes is from the original of some devoted, eccen- 
tric, or profligate individual. The religious doctrines 
advanced in the course of these conversations are con- 
formable to the articles and liturgy of our establish- 
ment ; but I am convinced the work would have been 
much more useful, and certainly less exceptionable, had 

' Instruction for Children, or a Token of Love, &c. London : Page and Sons, 
Blackfriars' Road. 1832. p. 16. 



Responsibility of minis ten 



427 



the place of ludicrous satire on negligent ministers, 
both in and out of the church, been supplied by a more 
serious and expostulatory method of treating evils, 
arising from an awful carelessness of pastoral duties. 
The consequences resulting from such unpardonable 
heedlessness are far too appalling to be alluded to in 
a tone even approaching to levity. Souls are lost by 
them, and, to use the sublime idea of the great Robert 
Hall, were all nature to become animated and vocal, it 
could not utter a groan sufficiently deep, or a cry suffi- 
ciently piercing, to express the magnitude and extent 
of such a stupendous catastrophe. Certainly Mr. Row- 
land Hill did not view the laughable events described 
by him as happening to ministers, in such a light as 
this : and it was always his custom, when speaking in 
private to those engaged in the sacred office, to address 
them with a gravity of manner which tended to im- 
press upon their minds the deep responsibility that 
rested on them. I have seen young clergymen, whom 
he kindly noticed as my friends, affected almost to 
tears, even when they recollected the counsel he had 
given them ; and sure I am that no human being ever 
felt more strongly the value of souls, or the infinite, the 
overwhelming solemnity of ministerial engagements. 
This has, I trust, already appeared in these pages : his 
orb shone brightly and steadily, during a lengthened 
period of unwearied labour ; and the venial eccentri- 
cities of his character were only as sparks thrown off 
in the rapid revolutions he made in his peculiar course. 
The highly gifted minister whose name has just been 
mentioned, observed of him, " His eccentricity has 
been merely of a superficial kind, eccentricity in man- 
ner^ not in doctfirie, combined with a well-tried con- 
sistency in whatever is important." 



428 



Tablet in Surry Chapel, 



A tablet, surmounted by a bust, is erected in Surry 
Chapel to the memory of my beloved and affectionate 
guardian with the following inscription, which I wrote 
at the request of the trustees : — 

TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE 

REVEREND ROWLAND HILL, A.M., 

FORMERLY OF 

SAINT John's college, Cambridge, 

AND FOR 

half A CENTURY THE ZEALOUS, ACTIVE, AND DEVOTED 
MINISTER OF SURRY CHAPEL, 
THIS TABLET IS ERECTED, RATHER IN TOKEN 
OF 

THE GRATEFUL RECOLLECTIONS OF 
A REVERED PASTOR, 
BY HIS BEREAVED AND MOURNING CONGREGATION, 
THAN AS A TRIBUTE 
SUITABLE TO THE WORTH OF ONE 
THE 

IMPERISHABLE MONUMENTS OF WHOSE LABOURS 
ARE THE 

NAMES WRITTEN IN HEAVEN OF THE MULTITUDES LED TO GOD 
BY HIS LONG AND FAITHFUL MINISTRY.8 



« To this there are simply added, by the trustees, the dates of his birth, death, and 
interment. 



429 



CHAPTER XX. 

Religion during the last century. 

The course pursued by Mr. Rowland Hill and his 
associates can never be fully appreciated, without a 
brief retrospect of the religious state of this country, 
at the time when they first commenced their exertions. 
From the restoration of the Stuarts to the accession 
of the house of Hanover, the Church of England was 
not without many able, zealous, and learned advocates 
of the cause of religion ; nor has she, at any other 
period of her history, been favoured with men of 
greater erudition and powers of reasoning. Without 
detracting, however, from the merits of such able 
writers, it must be acknowledged that their talents 
were, with very few exceptions, employed rather to 
inculcate and defend systems of divinity, and modes of 
church government, than to awaken a sense of the per- 
sonal nature and heart- renewing influences of genuine 
Christianity. Upon the restoration of the royal family, 
the theme of every treatise was conformity, in order 
to eradicate the lax discipline of the late times ; but as 
soon as the hostility of Popery to our church appeared, 
a controversy immediately commenced between our 
divines and the Papists. Many valuable books were 
then published, containing copious and clear illustra- 
tions of controversial points, and unanswerable argu- 
ments in favour of our tenets, as contrasted with those 
of the Church of Rome, which are deficient only in the 
life of religion. Thus these erudite and captivating 
works became often as injurious, from a want of the 



430 



Defective theology. 



principles they withheld, as they were beneficial by 
what they taught ; leading astray from those funda- 
mental and essential truths upon which our reformers, 
no less learned, but much more spiritual, had happily 
based all the doctrines of our church. The good re- 
sulting from a powerful defence of the externals of 
religion, did not counterbalance the evil arising from 
an omission to lay due stress on the necessity of that 
internal grace, by which alone man's heart can be 
cleansed, so as " perfectly to love, and worthily to mag- 
nify " a God in Christ. " They stood," says Watson 
truly of these writers, in his Life of Wesley, " be- 
tween the people and the better divines of the 
earlier age of the church, and put them out of sight 
their preaching, too, was of so cold, though refined and 
cultivated a style, that while it engaged and gratified 
the reason, it failed to awaken the dead in trespasses 
and sins. Christianity was pourtrayed as to the outline 
of her form, by hands that were masters of the art of 
delineation; but in the midst of all the graces and sym- 
metry of a lovely image, life was wanting : there was 
no voice to reach the ear, no animation to awaken sym- 
pathy in the heart. Most of the clergy were ignorant 
of the gospel, and were content to add to a liturgic ser- 
vice, neither understood nor appreciated, a brief moral 
essay, instead of preaching Christ and Him crucified.' 
This deadness was not peculiar to the church ; the 

' " For a long season," says Berridge, " the good old church doctrines have 
been much forsaken ; by some they are derided, and by many deserted. Yet no 
doctrines can build the church of Christ up but those which planted it. We may 
labour nauch in lopping off loose branches of immorality and infidelity, yet nothing 
will be done effectually till the axe is laid to the tree's root." — He observes further, 

Men are rightly treated in a reading desk, and called by their proper name of 
miserable sinners, but in the pulpit they are complimented on the dignity of their 
earthly, sensual, devilish nature ; are flattered with a princely will and power to 
save themselves; and are ornamented with a lusty fadge of merit." — Christian 
World Unmasked. 



Lukewarmness and error. 431 

same opiate had affected every religious community, 
and those who were not killed into an ignoble repose, 
had better have slept than been employed as they 
were, though somewhat drowsily, it is true, in scatter- 
ing the seeds of Socinian and Antinomian error : 
these were every where dropping the poison of the 
world into the cup of salvation, which, like the fabled 
glass of old, instantly detects the uncongenial infusion; 
the mixture becomes agitated, the lovely vessel bursts 
into a thousand fragments, presenting to our view only 
broken, scattered, and useless remnants of a once beau- 
teous whole. 

This state of things was not without exceptions in 
the zeal and characters of some, whose light, rendered 
more vivid and brilliant by surrounding darkness, was 
an object of hatred in the eyes of the immoral, who 
would gladly have put it out if they could.^ To pro- 
fligacy and vice, the inhabitants of our large towns 
added a thorough abhorrence of the solemn warnings, 
which denounced the awful consequences of ignorance 
and sin, and formed ready combinations with our vil- 
lagers, to insult every faithful witness who protested 
against their abominations. 

Wesley and Whitefield, when they first entered on 
their arduous labours, had all these difficulties to con- 
tend with : they had not to dread the fire and the 

^ Considerable efforts were made towards the end of the sixteenth and beginning 
of the seventeenth century, to second the objects of the royal proclamation for the 
suppression of vice, and some thousands of convictions for immorality of various 
descriptions took place. Great exertions were also made for the establishment of 
schools — vide " An Account of the Rise and Progress of the Religious Societies in 
the City of London, &c., and of the Endeavours for the Reformation of Manners 
which have been made therein, by Josiah Woodward, Minister of Poplar, 1698," — 
also other works giving a history of the manners of that period. However pious 
and laudable these exertions were, they do not appear to have been so thoroughly 
based upon gospel principles, and, therefore, not so efficient, as the subsequent 
labours of Whitefield, Wesley, and their contemporaries, who struck at the root of 
the evil, by going at once to the principle of a necessity of a change of heart as the 
Source of true morality and virtue. 



432 



Whitejteld and Wesley. 



stake, but they were looked upon as the scum and 
offscouring of the earth, and were treated as such. 
They were men of widely different characters, both 
as respects their natural dispositions as well as the 
discipline of their minds, and painful frailties were 
visible in the midst of their true greatness, to shew 
that we are to regard them only as imperfect instru- 
ments, while the entire glory of all they effected is to be 
ascribed to God alone. An ambitious love of power 
was evidently the besetting weakness of John Wesley ; 
aspiration after the honours, when he had no prospect 
of the sufferings of martyrdom, was that of White- 
field. In his letters to Mr. Rowland Hill at the begin- 
ning of this volume, it is evident how he courted 
and enjoyed persecution ; and whenever the fire, to 
use his own expression, was kindled in the country^ 
he was not satisfied unless honoured by being scorched 
a little in its flame. This was a wrong spirit, and 
did injury to his own mind and to his followers, by 
encouraging a morose and morbid carriage towards 
the world, giving needless offence, and provoking ani- 
mosity in those who might have been attracted and en- 
deared to truth by the lovely graces of pure Christianity. 
Wesley had nothing of this sort in his constitution, 
and very properly resisted violence, when offered to 
himself or his adherents, in a legal and dignified man- 
ner. His people had been insulted on one occasion 
by the officers of a regiment quartered at Lowestoft, 
in Suffolk ; he immediately wrote to inform their com- 
mandant of the fact, and asked for redress with be- 
coming firmness. " Before," said he, I use any 
other method, I beg of you, sir, who can do it with a 
word, to prevent our being insulted any more. We 
are men ; we are Englishmen ; as such, we have r 



Conversion. 



433 



natural and a legal right to liberty of conscience." ^ 
That Wesley and AVhitefield sowed the seeds of a re- 
ligious revival in our country is unquestionable, and I 
trust it will therefore be considered interesting, thus 
to notice the different spirit in which they engaged in 
the same enterprise. 

I have mentioned, that the defect in writings on 
religion, which appeared in days immediately preceding 
those of the revivalists, was, that they contained little 
or no allusion to the absolute necessity of a change of 
heart by conve?'sio?i, as the true source of the social 
and relative, as well as the spiritual duties of man. 
Preaching morality alone invariably leaves our hearers 
unawakened and unreformed ; nor is there any pure 
and certain virtue, but such as proceeds from a 
renewed and sanctified state of mind. Hence, when 
Wesley and Whitefield began their labours, they 
struck at once at the root, and proclaimed the essential 
but unpalatable truth, that sinners must be horn agahif 
and that the only proof of our interest in a Saviour's 
atonement, is the renewal of the soul by the power of 
his Holy Spirit. Whatever different opinions the two 
great leaders had of the evidences and knowledge of the 
time of conversion, they happily agreed that it was a 
work of God upon the heart, and that its fruit was 
holiness. The credulous mind of Wesley led him 
often to mistake for divine influences what was no- 
thing but the overflowing of a heated enthusiasm ; 
and it is not a little extraordinary, that so acute and 
talented a man should have found a congenial situation 
in the midst of persons whose bodily contortions were 
a melancholy caricature of the genuine effects of con- 

^ This letter is amongst the valuable collection of autographs in the possession of 
Dawson Turner, Esq., of Yarmouth, by whom it was kindly communicated to me, 

2 F 



434 



Enthusiasm of Wesley. 



viction. That Wesley believed such fits and raving as 
followed his preaching, to be the work of the Holy 
Spirit, none of his adherents have denied, though some 
of them have endeavoured, evidently perplexed at the 
absurdity, to soften down his opinions. Whitefield 
never encouraged these excesses, nor did he consider 
them as produced by the Spirit of God. Though dif- 
fering as to the adjuncts of conversion, the champions 
of truth agreed as to its necessity, cause, and effects, 
and were, doubtless, instrumental in awakening the 
dormant energies of a great portion of their thought- 
less fellow-creatures. They found at first able and 
willing coadjutors in the United Brethren ; but after- 
wards a separation took place, the details of which do 
not belong to this work. 

When the minds of Wesley and Whitefield were 
diverted from present effects to the unprofitable con- 
sideration of final causes, equally unfathomable in the 
natural and spiritual system of things, a breach 
between them was the speedy consequence. Wesley 
published a sermon on the doctrine of predestination, 
pointing out what he conceived to be its Antinomian 
tendency, at which Whitefield, who drew from it a 
directly opposite conclusion, took great offence. The 
controversy between the leaders caused a disunion of 
their societies ; but in January, 1750,^ the supporters 
of vital religion were gratified by witnessing their 
reconciliation. It was, however, only a smothering of 
the flame, which, after Whitefield's death, burst forth 
with an unextinguishable violence, bui-ning to this 
hour, though happily with diminished vehemence. 

The forgiving spirit of both \^^itefield and Wesley was most creditable to their 
Christian feelings. When Whitefield died, John and Charles Wesley were found 
to be designated in his will as " his honoured and dear friends, and disinterested 
fellow-labourers;" and Wesley preached a funeral sermon at Whitefield's death by 
his special desire. 



Rotnaine. 



435 



While Whitefiield and Wesley were engaged in active 
itinerancy, Romaine was successfully employing in 
London the effective machinery of our church, by his 
adherence to which, he grafted on the parent stock 
buds that are now filling the land with fruitfulness ; 
while the scions, fixed upon many other stems, have 
either withered away or produced little else but leaves. 
He was sincerely attached to the doctrines and disci- 
pline of our establishment, and saw plainly, that to 
bring her authority into reverence, to make her services 
comprehended, and preach the truths contained in her 
articles and homilies, was the surest way of doing 
permanent good. Though he did not depreciate the 
usefulness of enlightened itinerants, in days of almost 
universal darkness, he clearly foresaw that, without 
consummate prudence, both evils to others, and dangers 
to themselves, were to be apprehended from such a 
course. Sir Harry Trelawny, whose correspondence 
with Mr. Rowland Hill has been already referred to, 
earnestly requested Mr. Neale, of St. Paul's-church- 
yard, to introduce him to Mr. Romaine, in his vestry. 
" Well," said Mr. Neale, " as you so much wish it, I 
certainly will, but mind, I do not promise you he will 
not be angry with us both, as he never speaks to any 
body there." They went together before the service, 
and Mr. Neale ventured to say to Mr. Romaine, 
" Sir, I hope you will give me leave to bring in Sir 
Harry Trelawny, who is very desirous to speak to 
you." 

" O, Sir Harry Trelawny ! I have heard of him, you 
may." 

On Sir Harry's entering, Mr. Romaine looked at 
him kindly, and said in a solemn tone. 

" Sir, you stand upon ice — now you must excuse me 

2 r 2 



43() Edward Spencer, 

saying more, as it is contrary to my custom to admit 
persons here." 

Without denying that wherever the necessity of 
conversion by the Spirit of Christ was urged upon the 
people, both religious advantages and improved morals 
were the happy results, I think it wiW appear, upon 
looking at the present consequences of those important 
exertions, that the greatest ultimate benefit has flowed 
from such as adhered to the rules of our church. I 
have never met with a pious nonconformist who 
questioned the usefulness of Romaine's ministry in 
London, nor the value of his admirable writings : and 
if we look to places far removed from the metropolis, 
we shall see that a similar blessing has followed the 
well-regulated exertions of devoted clergymen during 
the last century.^ Take, for instance, the example of 
Edward Spencer, Rector of Wingfield, in the county of 
Wilts. He was brought up at the feet of Whitefield, 
and was acquainted with Wesley ; but he refused to 
labour without the pale of an episcopal communion. 
He was made the means of numerous conversions 
while Curate of Bradford, and on his retirement to 
Wingfield, formed a school upon evangelical principles, 
in which several of our zealous clergy received their 
first religious impressions, and were led to enter the 
ministry they have long adorned.^ Much as he admired 

^ I have pursued this subject more fully in my " Life of Walker of Truro," 
with a view to show that the gradual increase of true religion in our church is 
attributable to the judicious and regular labours of devoted clergymen, whose 
example is now followed by a daily increasing number of zealous ministers. 

^ Among his pupils were Crouch and Hill, of St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, and 
a long list of active and well-known clergy. Middleton bears testimony to the 
excellent character of Spencer in his " Ecclesiastical Memoir of the first four 
decades of the reign of George III," p. 48, 49. I was under his tuition for 
several years, and well recollect being taken to his school by my beloved relative, 
Mr. Rowland Hill, who preached in Wingfield church, where the crowd was so 
excessive that Mr. Hill was obliged to stand upon the stairs of the pulpit, close to 
the door, while the prayers were being read. Numbers were unable to gain 
admittance, but the windows of the church being all opened, they stood in silence 
in the church-yard and heard the sermon. 



Ber ridge. 



437 



Whitefield and Wesley, Spencer foresaw the danger of 
moving with their rapid and eccentric evolutions, and 
the evils that would be entailed on posterity by the 
divisions of their parties. 

The persons who had most influence in directing 
the newly awakened mind of Mr. Rowland Hill were 
Whitefield and Berridge, to the former of whom he 
was more particularly led by his brother Richard, who 
had embraced Calvinistic opinions. Lady Huntingdon 
also had paid him considerable attention ; but though 
he always treated her memory with respect, and 
vindicated her character against aspersions during the 
Wesleyan controversy, I think he was not one of her 
ladyship s most cordial admirers. The mode in which 
she exercised her authority was not suited to a mind 
impatient of restraint. Berridge, when he made himself 
known to Mr. Rowland Hill, was in the zenith of his 
activity, and, together with Whitefield, inspired him 
with a kindred ardour. Much has been related in 
various books, of the excesses of the followers of 
Berridge ; but from all I have ever gathered from 
Mr. Hill on the subject of his character, I am con- 
vinced that nothing of the sort took place during the 
time he constantly attended at Everton. Whatever 
enthusiasm Berridge may have manifested before he 
threw off the opinions of Wesley, his view of the 
nature and mode of conversion was afterwards sobered 
down into a right conception of that glorious work of 
the Holy Ghost upon the soul. Mr. Rowland Hill 
never concealed his own opinion, of these fanatical 
misrepresentations of the effects of a divine power 
which acts gently on the heart, and I have often heard 
him say, "John Wesley was too willing to believe 



438 



Whitefield's want of system. 



in such extravagances : he ought to have known 
better." 7 

It is a striking and encouraging fact, that the 
zealous preachers of the Gospel, who sprung up in the 
times to which we are now referring, pointed with 
one consent to the doctrines of our church, as a pure 
standard of truth. They found what they wanted laid 
down there as the first principles of religion, namely, 
Regeneration and Justification hy Faith, the latter of 
which Berridge truly called " the jewel of the gospel 
covenant, the ground work of the reformation, [and] 
the glory of the British church." They found that 
our Articles contained the master key to unlock the 
dungeons of error, in which Satan had long confined 
his willing captives, and they rejoiced to use it, but 
too much overlooked the necessity of arranging in 
order the multitudes who were set free. They cut 
down the harvest of the earth, but did not gather the 
corn into sheaves, so that it became the easy spoil of 
every bird of prey, while those who adhered to the 
discipline marked out by our reformers, if they reaped 
less, collected and preserved more. Whitefield exer- 
cised an arbitrary control over his immediate followers 
and friends, and carried his dictatorial spirit at times 
almost to an excess ; but he did not possess the art of 
contriving and managing any organized system. The 
character of Wesley was precisely the reverse: he loved 
power, knew how to regulate his sect, and established 
and maintained, by a skilful arrangement of his classes 

7 Mr. Rowland Hill's views of these bodily affections may be seen in the Village 
Dialogues — Dialogue xlvi, called Enthusiasm detected^ where the subject is ably 
treated. The names also of Peggy Gooseca-p, Sally Fancy ^ and Janet Meagrimy are 
not ill suited to the characters of too many females who are deplorably forgetful of 
ilie counsel of St. Paul. 



Effects of Wesley's management. 439 

and bands, under responsible leaders, an extraordinary 
influence over them. Lady Huntingdon did the same 
to a certain degree, in the formation of her Cojinexion, 
but with less talent. Whatever benefits may have 
arisen from the Methodist system, it has unquestionably 
led to some evils. Watch-nights and love-feasts have 
often acted as hotbeds to force, rather than as warmth 
to cherish, the healthy growth of religion ; the mode of 
conducting classes, in which believers engage to tell 
each other the true state of their souls, leads many to 
self-deception, or else to attempts to deceive others ; 
while the hands of perfect individuals generate such a 
degree of spiritual pride, that even Wesley himself 
found no slight difficulty in maintaining them ; and it 
is only fair towards their great leader to believe, that 
were he now in the midst of his people, he would 
endeavour to remedy many of these defects. 

Whitefield's zealous spirit exhausted all its energies 
in preaching, and his full dedication to God was 
honoured by unbounded success. The effect produced 
by his sermons was indescribable, arising in a great 
degree from the most perfect forgetfulness of self, 
during the solemn moment of declaring the salvation 
that is in Christ Jesus. His evident sincerity im- 
pressed every hearer, and is said to have forcibly struck 
Lord Chesterfield, when he heard him at Lady Hun- 
tingdon's. At his death there was only one young 
man to be found, who had caught the fire of his zeal, 
possessed similar powers of eloquence, and was 
actuated by the same self-denying and disinterested 
spirit. This was Mr. Rowland Hill, who appeared in 
many respects to have been cast in the same mould. 
His doctrines, his preaching talents, his popularity, his 
want of any definite system, were all Whitefield again, 



440 



Mr, Rowland HHPs resemblance 



At first, Wesley commended the exertions of the 
youthful itinerant, especially after he heard, that in the 
fulness of his Catholic spirit, he had attended a watch- 
night at Leeds ; and young Rowland was flatteringly 
assured, that the next of those meetings was '^very 
unlike the one" they had when he was there ! Mr. Hill 
was, however, not quite so easily caught as was perhaps 
imagined ; and we have seen with what severity he was 
afterwards attacked by Wesley, both in his writings 
and from the pulpit, when he began to take part in the 
Calvinistic controversy, the mode of conducting which 
he seemed to regret more and more, as each successive 
year brought him nearer to a heaven of perfect love. 
I believe both the Vicar of Evert on and his youthful 
ally were drawn into the dispute by the imputations 
cast upon their dead and living fellow-labourers ; for 
soon after the Bristol meeting in ITTl? caused by the 
edict of Lady Huntingdon relative to the minutes of 
Conference of the preceding year, Berridge wrote thus 
to Mr. Hill — "The late contest at Bristol seems to 
turn upon this hinge, whether it shall be Pope John 
or Pope Joan. My dear friend, keep out of all con- 
troversy, and wage no war but with the devil." ^ Had 
the excellent giver of this counsel followed it himself, 
and thus set an example of forbearance, it would have 
been the means of saving his young friend from many 
hindrances in his early career, and many painful 
reflections in later years. 

The position which Mr. Rowland Hill occupied in 
the midst of good men at this time was very remark- 
able. The followers of Whitefield flocked round his 
standard, owned him as their leader, and acknowledged 

8 This letter, which is in my possessioiivis dated Oct. 20th, 1771 ; the Bristol 
meeting was in August of the same year. 



to Whitefield, ?vhose cause he revived, 441 

that their drooping cause was revived through his 
instrumentality, both in London and in various parts 
of the kingdom. His appearance in every place was 
the signal for a revival, and there is reason to believe 
that thousands were awakened under his ministry. 
By the Methodists, Mr. Hill's doctrines were altogether 
misrepresented ; for he certainly never was a whit 
behind Wesley in declaring the free invitations of the 
Gospel,^ but only marked more distinctly the important 
truth, that the ability to accept them through faith 
must be given us of God. He preached for the first 
time at his curacy, from 1 Cor. ii, 1, 2, on June 20th, 
1773 ; and after a clear and faithful exposition of his 
text, concluded in these words — " Such is the salvation 
that my whole soul prays you may receive. No labours 
of mine, such as they are, will ever be thought too 
much for the accomplishment of these glorious purposes. 
Suffer me, therefore, to conclude by beseeching you, 
by all that is dear and tender, to lay these things most 
closely to heart. While I thus address you, I feel the 
most affectionate sympathy towards you that words 
can possibly express. I pray you, therefore, to go 
home, and lay this my first message to heart. The 
expanded arms of a dear Redeemer are now open, to 
embrace every returning prodigal that is enabled to 
receive this Gospel call. None are too vile for Mercy 
to receive. The Lord of love has given you the 
promise. Whosoever cometli to me I will in no wise 
cast out. Even so, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen."^^ 

At the time when the young Curate of Kingston 
delivered the " Gospel Message to his parishioners, 

9 Berridge's words on this subject are, "The promises of the Bible are free for 
all who see their need of them." 
'0 John vi, 37. 

' The sermon was printed for the benefit of the poor of Kingston, under the 



442 



Gospel Message, 



the doctrines contained in it were too seldom taught 
from the pulpits of our church ; but though such 
ministers were comparatively few in number, they were 
happily not extinct. Mr. Hill's sermon was dedicated 
to the incumbent of his parish, the Rev. James Brown, 
whom he calls " a brother beloved in the Gospel of our 
God," who vigilantly watched over the spiritual 
interests of their joint charge, while his curate was 
engaged in itinerating. Mr. Hill, when a young man, 
looked almost upon every place he came to as a fortress 
of Satan, to which it was right to lay siege, and he 
endeavoured to effect his object, not only by attacking 
external bulwarks, but by undermining the very 
foundation of the stronghold. To this end, he com- 
menced with declaring the depravity of human nature, 
and described in forcible language the consequences of 
the fall, of which the following striking specimen is 
found in his first discourse at Kingston : — " When our 
first parents were sent forth from the hands of their 
Creator, their hearts being the direct transcript of his 
moral image, they appeared the completest workman- 
ship of a holy God, [and] were blessed with a nature 
as spotless and pure as an angel could possess. All 
love, all peace, all joy, all delight in, and conformity to 
the will of God that made them, were the continual 
inmates of their happy breasts. Not the least taint of 
the minutest impurity had they to disturb their peace, 
but always heaven and consolation in the Lord. God 
pronounced this, his last work, to be very good, and as 
such, took delight in the creature that he had made. — 
Such was man, while blessed with innocence before the 
fall ; but how dreadful were the consequences of the 

title of " The Gospel Message, being the substance of a sermon delivered in the 
parish church of Kingston, near Taunton, June 20, 1773, by the Rev. Rowland 
Hill, A.M." 



Invitafion to shmers. 



443 



first transgression ! How was God's workmanship 
robbed of all its holiness and grandeur thereby ! 
Plow was this once glorious temple of the Holy Ghost 
prostituted to iniquity, and converted into the most 
hateful den of filthy lusts and vile abominations ! 
Which of you can deny this, who either reads his 
Bible or reads himself? From Genesis to Revelation 
all Scripture declares this awful truth, that as soon as 
ever man fell, immediately was he deprived of every 
thing that was good, and dreadfully filled with every 
thing that was bad." He proceeds, " as the salvation 
procured by a crucified Redeemer can never be 
regarded by any but those who have been first con- 
vinced that they are lost without it, the fall must be 
preached as an introduction to the Gospel." In 
declaring the doctrine of original sin, Mr. Rowland 
Hill used to lay great stress upon the expression, qudrn 
longissime,^ in our ninth article, which he would trans- 
late, the furthest possible ; but whatever his opinions 
on the mysterious subject of election may have been, 
nothing could be more decided than his invitation of 
sinners to Christ. As an instance, I will give the 
concluding appeal of his sermon on the death of his 
friend Rouquet : — " Every moment brings you nearer 
to eternity. How then will you bear to stand in the 
presence of a holy sin-avenging God, whose authority 
you have defied, and whose Gospel you have hitherto 
despised ? O that some alarming word might con- 
strain you to fly, hastily to fly, from the wrath to 
come ! Death and destruction alone are before you 
while you continue living in sin. But thanks be to 
God for his unspeakable gift! Christ is revealed as 



The expression is, " ab originali justitia quam longissinie distet," &c. 



444 



Invitation to sinners. 



the salvation of the lost; whosoever cometh shall 
certainly be received, for his promise stands, he will in 
no wise cast them out ; the poor, the maimed^ the halt, 
and the blind are all alike to him. He loves to 
magnify the riches of his mercy to the returning 
sinner. Such is the adorable Christ that is now ready 
to snatch you as brands from the burning, and make 
you standing monuments of mercy and salvation. 
The same Lord that called our brother from his sins, 
saved him by his grace, and has now brought him to 
glory, stands waiting to receive the basest that lives 
upon earth. O that I could prevail ! I point you to 
that lovely sacrifice, the Lamb of God, that taketh 
away the sins of the world ; to his mercy I commend 
you, and may his salvation be the happy portion of all 
our hearts." That such was the tenor of Mr. Hill's 
preaching in his latter days, is known to the multitudes 
who heard him ; but my object is to vindicate his 
ministerial character from the doctrines imputed to 
him while he was the associate of Toplady, and the 
follower of Berridge. 

Notwithstanding the irregularities of Mr. Rowland 
Hill, he lived on terms of most affectionate union with 
the zealous clergy who agreed with him in doctrine, 
and felt the importance of the momentous truths he 
taught. Equally opposed by the world as himself, 
they united with him in the bonds of the gospel. 
Wherever the depravity of man's nature, salvation as 
it is in Christ Jesus, the necessity of regeneration, and 
justification by faith, were faithfully preached, a spot- 
less life proved no defence against a multitude of 
enemies. Those who upheld the dignity of human 
nature could not endure the humbling declaration of 
their lost and helpless condition ; but in contending 



Plato's view of human nature. 445 

against this truth, they proved themselves to have less 
light in the day of Christianity than heathen philo- 
sophers possessed during the night of Pagan darkness. 
Even Plato declared the result of his observations on 
man, to be a conviction that evil was hereditary in his 
nature,^ from which, through ignorance of the true 
remedy, he laments that no refuge can be discovered/ 
" I have heard," says this philosopher, " from wise 
men, that we are dead, and our body is a tomh but 
this doctrine, during the early life of Mr. Hill, drew 
down upon him and his friends every species of 
obloquy, hatred, and persecution, from those who 
forgot that they were giving, by their violence, a 
practical demonstration of the very truths they were 
contending against. 

The same ties which united Mr. Rowland Hill to 
many of his pious brethren in the church, bound him 
also both to zealous laymen and active nonconformist 
ministers. They all gazed so intensely on the light to 
which they pointed, that minor objects were lost in the 
full blaze of its celestial beams. In a letter addressed 
to Mr. Burder, Mr. Hill observes—" Consider, my dear 
brother, with what a united heart and spirit you and 
I travelled through the north of England in our 
younger days ; not an idea struck us but repentance 
towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus 
Christ." This was the exact state of the case : they 
laboured together to uproot the noxious plant of un- 
belief, and to raise in its stead the tree of life ; and the 
singleness of their design will cause their failings to be 
forgotten and forgiven in these days, when the essential 
portions of the principles they upheld are widely dif- 

His expression is avix(pvTov i-niarw wnov Ka< voariixa. 
' "Eywys yjHOVo-cx Twv a-ofojv, «ur vvv rnxtlg- TtQvafxeV xa) tI fxh (rw//t eVT/i* e/iwv ijrjfAV., 



44() Admirable resolutions of J, Wesley 

fused throughout the globe, and extensively honoured 
in our nation. 

While the parties into which zealous men had been 
divided, waged a controversy of principle with the 
world, they differed amongst themselves in a great 
degree, though not altogether, about words. In his 
sermon on Jer. xxiii, 6, The Lord our Righteousness^ 
Wesley makes these admirable remarks— "men may 
differ from us in their opinions as well as their expres- 
sions, and, nevertheless, be partakers of the like pre- 
cious faith. It is possible they may not have a dis- 
tinct apprehension of the very blessings which they 
enjoy : their ideas may not be so clear, and yet their 
experience may be as sound as ours." He likewise 
deprecates our being " rigorous in requiring others to 
use just the same expressions " as our own. At the 
conclusion of his sermon on attending the church 
service, W esley also says — " Nearly fifty years ago, a 
great and good man. Dr. Potter, then Archbishop of 
Canterbury, gave me an advice for which I have ever 
since had occasion to bless God : ' if you desire to be 
extensively useful, do not spend your time and strength 
in contending for or against such things as are of a 
disputable nature, but in testifying against open no- 
torious vice, and in promoting real essential holiness.' 
Let us keep to this: leaving a thousand disputable 
points to those, that have no better business than to 
toss the ball of controversy to and fro." This deter- 
mination, like the advice of Berridge to Mr. Rowland 
Hill, was most excellent : but when heated by disputa- 
tion, how do the best of men forget to abide by their 
own counsel. In the Sermon on the " Wedding Gar- 
ment," we find Wesley calling the opinion of those who 
believed the linen white and clean," in which the 



forgotten in coyitroversy. 



447 



saints will appear before God, to be the imputed right- 
eousness of Christ, Antinomian jargon ! This was not 
in itself a very gentle expression, and certainly rather 
contradictory to the sense conveyed in the verse, which 
he quotes from the Methodist hymn book, in a sermon 
on " The Lord our Righteousness," as containing a 
proper explanation of his sentiments : — 

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty are, my glorious dress : 
'Midst flaming worlds, in these array''d^ 
With joy shall I lift up my head. 

If Wesley did not choose to toss the ball of contro- 
versy to and fro, he undoubtedly threw it very hard 
at supporters of the doctrine of election, when he as- 
serted in his sermon on " Free Grace," that they, 
though unintentionally, represented " the Most High 
God as more cruel, false, and unjust, than the devil." 
To say nothing of using language such as this, the 
unfairness of it must be evident, to all who know how 
constantly those whom he attacked endeavoured to 
magnify the infinite love of God to a sinful world. 
However contradictory the doctrines of Whitefield and 
others may have appeared to Wesley, they could not 
be more so than the expressions just quoted from the 
works of the latter, nor than his notions on perfection, 
when he says that it is not the perfection of angels, or 
of Adam, neither does it " exclude ignorance, and error, 
and a thousand other infirmities." Now it is a sin- 
gular kind of perfection^ that lacks all these requi- 
sites ; and is much the same as though a man were to 

^ Vid. sermon on the text, Let us go on unto perfection : Heb. vi, 1. The Greek 
word T£X6;OT»5Tft, here translated perfection, is evidently contrasted with the. expres- 
sion rov riir af/.'Tr toO X^/o-Toy Koy^v, and is thus admirably explained by Beza— 
" sermonem justitise convenientem adultis, et ab elementali distinctum " — they were 
to leave elementary pr'mciples, and to proceed to a course of inquiry suited to a 
maturer growth in Christianity, 



448 



Mr. Fletcher. 



call a thing infinite or eternal, but at the same time 
premise it was not so infinite as infinity, or eternal as 
eternity ! I am free to admit, that too great warmth 
was exhibited in these contests by each party, but the 
entire blame is not due to Mr. Rowland Hill and his 
friends.^ Had they properly defined their different 
expressions before they used them, and met in the 
same spirit as at the Bristol Conference in 1771? the 
conduct of these good men might have been set forth 
as an example, where it can now only be mentioned as 
a warning. Whenever Mr. Rowland Hill had been 
betrayed into a degree of unbecoming warmth, he 
was always ready to confess it. Speaking of some 
remarks he had made on Fletcher, he says — " I am 
sorry his name was mentioned in the last pamphlet, 
with the least apparent disrespect, as I still hope and 
pray that the time may come, when he will express his 
concern for the many gross misrepresentations of our 
sentiments he hath sent forth to the world in the 
warmth of controversy, and gladden the hearts of 
thousands, who respect him as an honest^ though 

I have made these remarks upon Wesley's share in the controversy, because I 
think a larger portion of blame has been cast upon my venerable relative for his 
conduct in it than he merited. Southey observes — " On the part of the Calvinists, 
the most conspicuous writers were the brothers Richard (afterwards Sir Richard) 
and Rowland Hill, and Augustus Montague Toplady, Vicar of Broad Hembury, in 
Devonshire. Never were any writings more thoroughly saturated with the essential 
acid of Calvinism than those of the predestinarian champions. It would scarcely be 
credible that three persons of good birth and education, and of unquestionable good- 
ness and piety, should have carried on controversy in so vUe a manner, and with so 
detestable a spirit — if the hatred of the theologians had not unhappily become pro- 
verbial."— Zi/e of Wesley^ vol. ii, p. 373, 374. Admitting that they were not 
free from blame, I trust this useful and eminent writer will allow ihat they had 
great provocation. Oh that the terms Calvinist and Arminian had never been in- 
vented to divide those who love our common Saviour ! 

^ All parties seem to agree in their testimony to the excellence of Fletcher, and 
it is only to be regretted that a spirit so fervent with truest love should ever have 
been excited by controversy. At Madeley his memory is still most affectionately 
cherished, and his name seems likely to be transmitted from generation to genera- 
tion with increasing reverence. On the day of his funeral his friend, Mr. Joshua. 
Gilpin, Vicar of Kockwardine, thus entered his burial in the parish register : — 
" John Fletcher, clerk, died on Sunday evening, August 14, 17f55. He was one of 
the most apostolic men of the age in which he lived. His abilities were extraor- 



Sunday schools. Education. 449 

mistaken man. by renouncing merit, and exalting the 
Saviour, as all in all to the believing soul. This ra any- 
good people have been taught to do, who still differ in 
some points relative to particular election and universal 
redemption." Watson says, that Fletcher's writings, 
though greatly admired among the Wesleyans, are not 
admitted as standards of their doctrines. 

Mr. Rowland Hill had the honour of introducing 
Sunday schools into the metropolis of his native 
country, institutions which have, when properly ma- 
naged, been most efficient aids to a faithful preaching 
of the gospel, and are the legitimate field for an exer- 
cise of well regulated zeal, in such laymen as are 
willing to devote themselves to the work of teaching. 
The Bishop of Rochester, Dr. Horsley, viewed these 
rising institutions with suspicion, and made some se- 
vere remarks upon them, in a charge to the clergy of 
his diocese. His objections were replied to by Mr. Hill, 
in a sermon on the origin^ present design, and real 
utility of Sunday schools ; in which he assures his 
lordship, his notion that they were mixed up with 
political views was unfounded, and that any teacher 
would be instantly dismissed who taught any thing of 
the kind, except obedience upon scriptural principles 
to the powers that be. Education, considered in the 
abstract, cannot be pronounced a benefit in a moral or 
a civil sense : that depends entirely, by the blessing of 
God, on what is taught, and the spirit in which it is 
conveyed.^ Instruction, through a wrong medium, 

dinary, and his labours unparalleled. He was a burning and a shining light ; and 
as his life was a common blessing to the inhabitants of the parish, so the death of 
this great man was lamented by them, as a common and irreparable loss. This 
little testimony was inserted by one who sincerely loved and honoured him. Joshua 
Gilpin, Vicar of Rockwardine." 

f See some excellent remarks on this subject in a late charge of the most exem- 
plary and universally respected prelate, the Bishop of Winchester. 

2 G 



450 



HilVs regard for the church. 



operates like the rays of the sun concentrated and 
transmitted through the focus of a burning glass, 
the effect of which is to ignite and consume, not to 
enlighten. 

That Whitefield, Wesley, Hill, and others, were the 
means of not only awakening numbers who attended 
on their preaching, but of frequently exciting the zeal 
that was wanting in many of the ministers of our 
church, is a fact which it is impossible to deny ; but 
wherever the clergy began to exert themselves with 
due diligence, there a check was immediately given to 
the spread of irregularity. This effect was always 
foretold by Mr. Rowland Hill, whom nothing seemed 
to gratify more thoroughly, than to see himself deserted 
through the influence of clergymen, who, to use his 
own expression, " preached the doctrines from their 
hearts they had subscribed with their hands." I have 
frequently said to him — "Sir, such a one does not 
come to your chapel now." — " No," he would reply, " I 
should scold him well if he did, to leave such a minister 
as he has in his parish church." Mr. Hill was also 
fully alive to the freedom, notwithstanding imaginary 
restraints, possessed by the parochial clergyman, com- 
pared with the fettered situation of a minister de- 
pendent upon the uncertain favour, and under the 
direction of his flock : the sheep guiding the shepherd. 
" I certainly," I have heard him say, " pity a priest- 
ridden people, wherever they are to be found, all the 
world over ; but a people-^ndden priest is a still greater 
object of compassion." Happily, the laws of our esta- 
blishment provide against both these evils, allowing 
the people full liberty of conscience, but placing the 
minister beyond the reach of those capricious fancies, 
in which the majority of any congregation may choose 



Preparation for the mhiistrij. 



451 



to indulge. Thirty-two years before liis death, the 
minister of Surry Chapel thus addressed his flock — " I 
have a right to declare my predilection in favour of 
our own establishment. Her public liturgy is a public 
blessing to the nation ; nor is there a church upon the 
earth that so much promotes the abundant reading of 
the word of God. While, therefore, I love her consti- 
tution, I may grieve over a fatal declension from her 
original doctrines, and wish for her further reforma- 
tion ; still, as she is, may she stand ! " Living as he 
did to see a daily increasing diligence in her members, 
from the highest to the lowest, and a disposition to 
make such wise modifications in her system as the 
lapse of time may have rendered necessary, he depre- 
cated still more strongly any thing approaching to 
demolition, a feeling in which it is but fair to add, 
many temperate conscientious dissenters fully parti- 
cipate. 

I have in this chapter endeavoured to point out the 
situation which Mr. Rowland Hill filled in the midst of 
his contemporaries, and the motives by which he was 
guided, during the early days of a religious revival in 
our country. His more recent acts and opinions have 
been sufficiently adverted to in other parts of this 
volume, and are fresh in the recollection of the public. 
I cannot help mentioning, however, how greatly he 
lamented that unchristian bitterness with which too 
many have not scrupled to assail the ancient religious 
institutions of our land, and declared that, while as 
respected himself he stood " upon neutral ground," he 
would never invite into his pulpit any " but such as 
were of a mild, moderate, and conciliatory turn of 
mind. Such as are otherwise," he said, " vnll never 
accomplish a real reformation of that which is wrong, 



452 



Independency. 



either in church or state." Though there were parts 
of our system which he did not approve, he was equally 
convinced that the claims of Independency were not 
supported by the authority of Scripture. His words 
are, " I can never wish for Independency to be the 
established order of the day, because I cannot find it in 
the word of God ; yet I wish to be candid, generous, 
and affectionate to all ; and if the dissenters, as well as 
those of the Establishment, were to act with more 
purity and simplicity of conduct, we might hope to see 
better days." In writing to one who conceived that 
Scripture had placed the right of electing ministers with 
the people, he remarked, that though it had been the 
opinion of eminent divines that " no precise form of 
church government was ever intended to be laid down 
in the New Testament, yet it would be difficult to dis- 
cover where one instance is to be found of any minister 
being appointed by the choice of the people, to preside 
over a separate congregation, however just and neces- 
sary such an appointment may be for the peace of the 
church; or rather, whether ministers were not left to 
nominate their successors to go about preaching every 
where that men should repent. And I think I am not 
far from the point, when it is recollected that the Holy 
Ghost is said to have made the overseers or elders of 
Ephesus, and Paul also commissioned Titus, by his own 
authority, to set in order the things that were wanting, 
and to ordain elders in every city, while Timothy was 
directed, in these words, ' to commit the same to faith- 
ful men who shall be able to teach others also.' " 
These were the views of Mr. Rowland Hill a very 
short time before his death, and I feel I ought to 
add to them his marked expression of the disappro- 
bation with which he heard of ministers exciting 



Wrong attacks on the chnvvh. 



453 



the passions of their flocks by inveighing against 
the church. In a letter to one who had delivered 
what my venerable relative designated, in his own 
style, " Sunday evening bastinadoes of the church," 
he said, " Give me leave to express my surprise how 
you could, on that solemn day in which we are for- 
bidden to think our own thoughts or speak our own 
words, irritate the minds of your hearers by such un- 
profitable discussions, when they should be sent to their 
homes in a frame of mind fitting those who wish to be 
in the Lord's spirit on the Lord's day." He added 
also, " As neither you nor I have any thing to do with 
the rigid laws and subscriptions entailed upon the 
church, and are left at full liberty to do as we like, 
what business have we to interfere with them, when 
they so entirely cease to interfere with us?" This 
was the generous spirit which attracted to my aged 
relative the respect and admiration of moderate men 
of all parties ; by remaining, however, on " neutral 
ground," he diminished his practical influence with the 
religious public, who, while they generally received his 
admonitions with such outward reverence as was justly 
due to him, were seldom moved by them to action. In 
all assemblies his rising to speak was a signal for 
attention, and those present listened to him with the 
homage due to age, character, and long service in his 
Master's cause, but the impression too often passed 
away with a tear excited by his pathos, or a smile 
awakened by his wit. While this is somewhat attri- 
butable to his want of a determined system, it is also 
certain that it arose in a measure from the strong cur- 
rent of the stream of party which is daily carrying 
men, aye, and seemingly wise men, away from the 
fertile scenes of unity and love to the dreary mountains 



454 Need of due training for the ministry. 

of discord, where they can neither sow nor reap the 
harvest of heaven. I remember when I was a boy a 
person calling on Mr. Hill, to complain of the wretched 
divisions in a little dissenting community in the coun- 
try, and to ask his advice. Before his visitor had 
proceeded far in his story, he said quickly, " Be more 
careful whom you admit to your pulpit." " Pulpit ! 
sir," he replied, we have none ; the strongest party 
carried it out upon the common and burnt it!" The 
application of this anecdote is obvious, and would only 
be weakened by enlarging on it. 

One of Mr. Hill's greatest mistakes was the encou- 
ragement he gave to pious young men to become 
preachers, who had a gift of speaking, without the 
other essential requisites for such an important func- 
tion ; differing in this particular from the practice, not 
only of the church, but of the majority of dissenters, 
who bestow much pains in training their candidates for 
the sacred office. The mode of ministerial tuition 
adopted by the latter has often been held up as more 
calculated to effect the object in view, than the course 
of study prescribed by our universities, but I think 
without due consideration. Lord Bacon held it to be 
an error, that scholars in his days came " too unripe " 
to the pursuits of logic and rhetoric; and the same 
observation will apply to the study of divinity, which 
is best apprehended by minds first subjected to the 
discipline of a regular course of academical learning. 
Many of the most distinguished ornaments of our 
courts of law prepared themselves for those attain- 
ments which raised them to deserved eminence, 
by aspiring to and gaining the highest honours of 
Oxford or Cambridge ; and brought to the arduous 
task of learning their profession, an intellect sharpened 



Value of academical studies. 



455 



and set in order for the work by a previously well- 
regulated exercise of the reasoning powers, and a clas- 
sical cultivation of the taste. The same principle 
applies to the study of theology,^^ a premature learning 
of which leads only to superficial and unprofitable 
knowledge, because the understanding itself has not 
been previously raised above the capacity of youth, by 
due and well-regulated degrees. How far preparatory 
exercises may be made to bear more strongly on the 
after life of practice, is another question ; but if ever 
any false notions of preparation for action be allowed 
to supersede the long established system of mental 
training, we shall cease to enjoy many blessings of 
which we may be justly proud, and which are so much 
to be ascribed to the erudition, as well as to the zeal of 
clerical members of the Church of England. Learning 
combined with piety, like what is called toning in a 
print, gives grace and beauty to the impression. 

In my humble attempt to delineate the character of 
my beloved relative, I trust I have not fallen into the 
error of concealing his failings. I feel, therefore, that I 
iflay venture to conclude, by pointing to a few of those 
graces of which he was a bright example. The first 
of these is the devotion of his youth to the service of 
God. While yet a boy at school, he was the means of 
the conversion of some of the same tender age as him- 
self, the remembrance of which shed a beam of peace 
and joy over the entire course of his long protracted 
journey through life. This work will not be written 
in vain, if the history of Mr. Rowland Hill and his 
pious relatives be the means of inducing any youthful 

10 It ought, however, to be remarked, that the study of the Greek Testament, of 
the Evidences, and various theological works, is far from being neglected in our 
universities, where also great encouragement is given to proficients in the Hebrew 
language. 



456 Ewcellences of Mr. Rowland Hill. 

reader to seek the same happiness they found in the 
enjoyment of early piety. 

Another excellency which shone brightly in this 
eminent servant of Jesus Christ, was the highest spi- 
rituality, accompanied with the deepest humility. Al- 
though the love of approbation was the leading quality 
of his mind, he never once forgot, in the midst of the 
applause which welcomed him every where in his latter 
days, to prostrate himself in dust and ashes before 
God, and the riper he became in grace, the more fervent 
were his supplications for humility. 

Mr. Hill was also an example to every Christian in 
the retirement of his family. It was impossible to be 
the inmate of his house and not love him; he neglected 
none of those little acts of kindness, which make up 
the sum of human happiness in private life ; and his 
uniform cheerfulness gave an inexpressible charm to 
the circle of his fireside. With respect to his conduct 
to his servants and dependants, the very words he 
used in eulogizing the memory of Rouquet are ap- 
plicable to himself. " He beheld his servants as fel- 
low-creatures, and knew that they had as much right 
to happiness as himself. Disdainful looks, proud, 
snappish, severe speeches, which some can make use of 
upon every supposed offence, were never seen or heard 
from him ; hence none of those changes appeared among 
his servants, which so sadly disgrace the families of 
many. From the best of principles they were bound 
to serve him — the principle of love." ^ 

I may also use Mr. Hill's description of the character 
of Rouquet as a friend, to describe his own. " As a 
friend, from a very intimate acquaintance with him, 
give me leave to bear my testimony, that one more 

\ Funeral sermon on the death of Rouquet, p. 19. 



Excellences of Mr. Bow land IlilL 457 

constant and sincere I never found; to have equalled 
him would have been difficult, to have excelled him 
impossible. And no wonder : an experimental know- 
ledge of the Ftiend of sinners is the only true basis 
upon which real disinterested friendship can be built. 
From the best of motives, therefore, he was of a more 
generous turn than to love in prosperity alone : in 
adversity he was the same, his conduct was invariable 
throughout." ^ 

Another characteristic of this truly great and good 
man was a spirit of universal disinterested benevolence, 
such as rendered him well deserving of the affectionate 
testimony given to his worth by the Bishop of Win- 
chester, who, in addressing the members of the British 
and Foreign Bible Society soon after his death, de- 
scribed him as an individual " associated in their minds 
with everything pious and benevolent." I have before 
alluded to his courtesy towards visitors and applicants 
of every kind, and the imbounded generosity with 
which he relieved the necessities of those who he knew 
intended no imposture. All ministers have not the 
means of giving to the needy, but all may be pitiful 
and courteous.'" 

The last trait in the character of my venerable 
guardian I shall mention, is the determination he acted 
on to go nowhere but as a minister, the consequence of 
which was, that he was universally useful. I do not 
so much allude to his public engagements, as to his 
private intercourse with his friends ; and all who were 
favoured with his acquaintance will acknowledge, that 
he appeared as much a pastor in their houses, as he 
did when urging them, in animated appeals from the 
pulpit, to walk in the light of the Lord. Whenever, 

- Funeral senuon on the death of Rouquet, p. 13, 20. 



458 



Conclusion. 



also, he saw any thing in the private life of his friends 
which he considered inconsistent with a profession of 
religion, he never failed to point it out, but with such 
evident kindness and delicacy, that defects were cor- 
rected without feelings being wounded. Where, how- 
ever, gentle remonstrance was unavailing, he did not 
scruple to rebuke the faults of his people. 



To draw folk to heaven with fairness, 

By good example, this was his business. 

But if he knew any person obstinate, 

Whether he were of high or low estate, 

Him would he reprove sharply for the nonce. 

A better priest I trow no where there is ; 

He waited after no pomp or reverence ; 

He made himself no spiced conscience, 

But Christ's lore, and bis apobtles twelve 

He taught, but first he followed it himself. — Chaucer. 



THE END. 



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